
Class _mS_JLQa 



Copyright l^°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE STORY OF CHINA 



BY 

R. VAN BERGEN, M. A. 

M 

AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF JAPAN 



NEW YORK-:- CINCINNATI-:- CHICAGO 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



THE LIBRARY mf 

e»NGRESS, 
Two Comes ftEOEtvE* 

APR. 26 1902 

COf^RWHT eNTHY 

OUAM (^ XXa MO. 
OOFV 1. 



Copyright, 1902, by 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



THE STORY OF CHINA 
w. P. I 



PREFACE 

In writing this book I have endeavored to impart as many 
facts about the Middle Flowery Kingdom as are positively 
known. Personal observation enters largely into its compo- 
sition, but I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the fol- 
lowing writers : D. C. Boulger, Mrs. Bishop, M. von Brandt, 
A. R. Colquhoun, Sir J. F. Davis, G. N. Curzon, Justus 
Doolittle, R. S. Gundry, Abbe Hue, Henry Norman and S. 
Wells Williams. 

While this book is written primarily for young people, it 
is hoped that the information contained in it will be found 
interesting to older readers. 

R. VAN BERGEN. 



CONTENTS 



I. THE COUNTRY 

General Description 7 

Shih Pah Seng, or The Eighteen Provinces .... 14 

Products of China 23 

II. THE PEOPLE 

How The Chinese Are Governed ....... 34 

Examinations : Plow Officers Are Appointed .... 44 

The Tie That Binds 52 

The Belief in Spirits 61 

The Chinese People 69 

Marriage, Birth, and Death 76 

The Chinese at Home 81 

A Chinese City 88 

What Boys Learn at School 96 

Games and Holidays 105 

III. PAST AND PRESENT 

The Deluge as Told by the Chinese 112 

Brief History of China 118 

Confucius — 551-479 b. c 126 

5 



Early Intercourse with China 134 

The European Explorers in China 141 

The Dutch in China, and What They Did .... 150 

Russians Object in China 155 

Americans in China 162 

What the British Ask of China 168 

First War Between Great Britain and China. . . . 175 

The Tae-Ping Rebellion 184 

How A Poor Boy Made a Name 190 

Li Hung Chang 197 

KuANG Hsu, The Illustrious Successor 206 

China's Latent History 212 

Conclusion 216 

Index 219 



THE STORY OF CHINA 

I. THE COUNTRY 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

WHEN Columbus began his voyage across the Atlantic 
Ocean, it was his purpose to find a new and shorter 
route to India and Cathay, or China. The word Cathay is 
no longer used by us, but the Russians and the people of 
Central Asia, still call the Chinese Ki Tai (kee-tye). 

It is not definitely known how the name China came into 
use. A great many people who have lived in China, and who 
have studied the language, have tried to investigate the mat- 
ter. Some think that it came from the Tsin family, who 
owned a large territory in the western part of the empire, 
when the first people from Europe came overland to China 
to trade. One of the members of this family became Emperor 
of China. His country was known among the people of 
Arabia, Persia, and India as Jin, Chin, or Sin. It seems 
likely that the old Israelites had also heard of the Chinese, 
for the prophet Isaiah says in one place : " Behold, these 
shall come from far : and lo, these from the north, and 
from the west ; and these from the land of Sinim," But 
there are others who believe that the word China comes 

7 




from the old Chinese word Tsan, meaning silk. They 

say that the word China means the Land of Silk, just as 

Brazil means the Land of a (crimson) 

Dyewood. We can not tell who is 

right, but we know that if we speak 

\«^-M w of China to a Chinese, he does not 
-^KFw know what we mean, unless he has 

learned that word from us. 

The Chinese have no special name 
for their country. When they speak 
or write of it, they call it sometimes 
Chung kwoh (choong-kwoh), that is, 
<^k ^^^ the Middle Kingdom, because they 

^r%- ^ believe that their land is the center 

of the world. They also think that 
China is the most civilized and refined 
country on earth, and they call it 
Chung Hwa Kwoh, which means the 
Middle Flowery Kingdom. When 
they think of China as a powerful 
empire, they call it Shih pah seng, 
that is, the Eighteen Provinces, just 
as we speak of our country as the 
United States. 

The Chinese often calls himself Han- 
jin or Han-tsz', meaning the son of 
Han. Sometimes he speaks of himself 
as a Tang-jin, or man of Tang, be- 

^, . ^, , ^ cause at one time China was called 

Chinese Characters 

Middle Flowery Kingdom Tang shan, or Land of Tang. They 
have other names, but these are the most common. 





The Chinese Empire is larger than the United States, but 
it has territories which do not belong to China Proper, just 
as we have the outlying territories of Porto Rico and the 
Philippine Islands. These territories are : Manchuria, Mon- 
golia, Sin-Kiang, Koko-Nor, and Thibet. They cover two- 
thirds of the area of the Empire, but together contain only 
about one-thirtieth of the entire population. 

China Proper, that is, the Eighteen Provinces, has an area 
of 1,500,000 square miles. It is about as large as the United 
States between the Atlantic Coast, and a line drawn down 
the eastern boundary of Montana, Wyoming and Colora,do, 
but not including Texas. Or it has the same area as our 
western territory beginning at the Pacific Coast and ex- 
tending eastward to Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas 
and Texas. 

Within these eighteen provinces of China Proper, in area 
about one-half of the United States without Alaska, live 
four hundred and twenty million people. The population 
of the United States is about seventy-six million, or twerity- 
one to every square mile; but in China Proper, there are 
two hundred and twenty-five to every square mile. 

China Proper is bounded on the north by Mongolia; on 
the east by Manchuria, the Gulf of Pe-chih-li (pay-chee- 
lee; pe = north), the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the 
Formosa Strait or Piscadores Channel, and the South China 
Sea; on the south by the Gulf of Tong-King, Tong-King, 
a,nd Burmah ; and on the west by Burmah, Thibet, Koko- 
Nor, and Sin-Kiang. 

The coast line is not unlike that of our Atlantic Coast. 
China is almost in the same latitude as the United States, 
and has the same variety of climate and productions. Owing 



10 



to the trade winds, the heat and cold are greater than in our 
country along the coast. Ningpo is in about the same 
latitude as New Orleans, but in the winter the snow is often 
six inches deep, and the people there can cut ice for use 
in summer. The Pei-ho (pay-hoh) River, not far from Pe- 
king, is frozen during three months in the year ; but the heat 
is so great in summer that fine peaches, grapes, and sweet po- 
tatoes are grown. The climate in the north is generally dry 
and healthful ; but in the south it is damp, especially in 
May, June, and July. In the interior of China, as in that 
of the United States, the climate varies with the altitude 
or height from the level of the sea, and with the direction 
of the winds. 

The general slope of the country is from west to east. 
From the high Himalaya (he-mah-lie-ah) Mountains in 
Thibet, four mountain ranges extend. Furthest north are 
the Tien shan (teen shahn) or Heavenly Mountains, some 
peaks rising to a great height. Within this range is the 
Pi* shan (pee shahn), the only volcano known in China. 
South of it, and extending in the same direction, is the Nan 
shan or Kuaii-lun (kwen-loon) range. It divides into two 
branches; one of these lies toward the southeast under the 
name of Siueh ling (see-oo-ay ling) or Snow Mountains 
(like our Sierra Nevada), and joins the Yun ling (yoon 
ling) or Cloud Mountains. The other branch is known as 
the Nan shan or Ala shan (ah-lah shahn). It is probable 
that great mineral wealth may be found in these mountains, 
since many precious stones come from them. But as the 
superstitious Chinese. believe that they conceal a number of 
monsters, as well as fairies and genii, they are not explored.' 
There are two other mountain ranges in China Proper, but 



II 



they do not rise to any great height and are not important. 
The great desert in Mongolia is named the Gobi (go-bee), 
that is, Sandy Sea, or Shamoh, which means Sandy Floats. 
It is 1, 800 miles long, and between 350 and 400 miles wide. 
It covers an area of 1,200,000 square miles, equal to nearly 
one-third of the United States. While the whole of this tract 
of land is not a desert, the fertile parts are rare. 




Travel on the Yang tsze Kiang 

The Chinese love and are proud of their rivers, because 
they are navigable to a great extent, and they use them as 
the highways for trade and travel. The principal river is 
the Yang tsz', or Son of the Ocean, named Yang tsze Kiang 
(yahng tsz' kee-aling). Kiang means river. This river has 
different names in its course, but is generally known as the 
Ta (tah) Kiang, or Great River; the name of Yang tsz' is 



12 



used only when it approaches the ocean. It rises in Thibet, 
but httle is known of it until it appears in the southwest 
province of China, named Yun-nan (yoon-nahn), when it 
is called Kin sha Kiang (kin shah kee-ahng) or River of 
the Golden Sand, because much gold dust is found in its 
bed. It is navigable at Chung King, 1,400 miles from its 
mouth, although it passes through a gorge, where naviga- 
tion is difficult. But stern-wheel steamers of great power, 
built after the model so often seen upon our rivers, have 
gone up and down the rapids through that gorge. This 
river runs through the richest and most fertile part of China. 
It is thought that one hundred and fifty million people live 
in the valley drained by the Yang tsz' and its tributaries. 
This is twice the entire population of the United States. 
We know that in some parts of this valley there are 800 
people to the square mile. 

The Hoang-ho (hwahng-hoh) is known as " China's Sor- 
row."' In a direct line from source to mouth, it would be 
1,200 miles long, but it has so many curves and bends that 
it runs to nearly twice that distance. The Chinese say that 
this Yellow ^iver has changed its bed six times, and it is 
well known that, before 1853, it had an entirely different 
bed from the present one. 

Gen. J. H. Wilson, an American Engineer who examined 
part of this river, says of it : " Generally, the river re- 
sembles the Missouri at and above Bismarck, in width, color, 
and volume of water, and even in the character and appear- 
ance of its fore-shores ; but, after it enters the delta, unlike 
the Missouri, it has no river vallc}^, with hillsides nearby, 
rising to the higher level of the rolling prairies. On the 
contrarv, its shores are never higher than ten or twelve feet. 



13 

and at places not more than five feet, even in the driest 
season. The plains are almost prefectly level, and stretch 
away in either direction from the river's margin hundreds 
of miles, without the slightest rise or depression that can 
be detected by the most practiced eye. They are absolutely 
as level as flowing water." ' This is the reason why we read 
of so many floods in the basin of this river. Thousands of 
people have been drowned, but the government does not 
try to prevent future disasters. 

The Chu-Kiang (choo kee-ahng), or West River, is an- 
other important waterway. It is really formed by three 
branches, called the East, North, and West Rivers, but the 
last-named is by far the largest. Together they drain a 
region of at least two hundred thousand square miles. 

The Pei-ho, or North River, is unimportant, except for 
the fact that it comes within about thirty-five miles of 
Peking, and is navigable beyond Tientsin (teen-tsin), a large 
city at the head of the Grand Canal. At the mouth of the 
Pei-ho, "are the Taku (tah-koo) forts, and a bar which pre- 
vents the entrance of ships except those of very light 
draught. 

^ China, James Harrison Wilson; D. Appleton & Co. 



SHIH PAH SENG, OR THE EIGHTEEN 
PROVINCES 

WE have seen that China Proper is divided into eighteen 
provinces. 

The most important of these provinces is Cliih-H (chee-lee), 
because it contains the capital, Peking, the seat of. the gov- 
ernment. It has an area of about 57,000 square miles, the 
same as Illinois, and a population of about 36,000,000, which 
is more than eight times that of Illinois. The principal city 
it Tientsin, on the Pei-ho, which is also a treaty port, that 
is, a city where foreigners may live and engage in busi- 
ness. There is a large trade with Mongolia, Manchuria, 
and Russia, most of which is carried on by caravans. Camels 
are frequently seen at Peking. The principal exports are 
hides and furs. 

Shan-si (shahn-see) has an area of 66,000 square miles, 
that is, it is nearly as large as Missouri. Its population is 
said to be 17,000,000, or more than five times that of Mis- 
souri. The southern part of this province, or about 30,000 
square miles, is a plateau from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above the 
level of the sea, and is one vast coal field. The people are 
poor, because there are no means of transportation, and 
they can not carry their produce to market. It happens very 
often that the harvest fails, and people die from starvation. 

14 



15 



The province contains eight large cities, besides the capital 
Tai yuan Fu (tie yooen foo). 

Shan-tung (shahn-toong) has an area of 53,000 square 
miles and a population of probably 30,000,00 ; that is, it is 
a little larger than Alabama and has seventeen times its 




Trade Caravan Resting Outside the City Wall' 

population. It is very fertile, and its land tax produces more 
revenue than that of any other province. Its mineral wealth 
is very great. There are four great coal fields, and the 
finest iron ore comes from Shan-tung. The natives are 
among the strongest and best in China. The Chinese gov- 
ernment prefers them as sailors for the navy. 



i6 



It is in this province that the Germans have leased a port, 
Kiao-chao (kiaw-chow). They are building railroads, and 
are trying to introduce European improvements. Che-foo 
(chee-foo), on the north coast, is an open port. Twenty- 
seven miles east of it, is Wei-hai-wei (way-hie-way), where 





View of Shanghai 

the Chinese fleet was captured or sunk by the Japanese. 
(1895). It was leased to Great Britain in 1898 on the same 
terms as Port Arthur had been leased to Russia. Within 
this territory Great Britain has sole jurisdiction. 

The province of Ho-nan (ho-nahn) contains a portion 
of the Great Plain, has an area of 67,000 square miles and 
a population of 29,000,000, that is, it is as large as the 



17 



New England States and has almost six times their pop- 
ulation. That portion of Ho-nan near the Yellow River 
(Hoang-ho) is very densely settled. The capital is Kai- 
fimg (kie-foong), near the river. For almost three hundred 
and fifty years (a. d. 780-1129) Kai-fung was the capital 
of the Chinese Empire. 

Kiang-su (keeahng-soo) lies south of Shan-tung. It has 
an area of 40,000 square miles, or that of Kentucky, and 
a population of 40,000,000, or almost twenty times the num- 
ber of inhabitants of that State. This province is exceed- 
ingly fertile and has a complete network of waterways, 
lakes, rivers, and canals. The capital is Nanking, or South- 
ern Capital. It was the seat of the Imperial Government 
from A. D. 317-592, and again from 1368- 1403. The sec- 
ond city, and the first in importance, is Shanghai (shahn- 
gye). It has obtained its preeminence since 1842, when 
it was opened as a treaty port. It well deserves to be called 
the Model Settlement of the Far East. Since 1895, when 
foreigners were allowed to manufacture in China, a large 
number of modern factories have been established in Shan- 
ghai. From twenty to thirty steamers arrive and depart 
each day. It has a fine city government, churches, schools 
and hospitals. 

Another important city is Soochow, close to Tahu (tah- 
hoo) Lake, with water routes to different parts of the 
Empire. Between Soochow and Shanghai the road is al- 
most one .continuous line of towns and villages. In the 
opinion of the Chinese it is a garden spot. They say : " To 
be happy on earth one must be born in Soochow, live in 
Canton, and die in Hang-chow." 

An-hui (ahn-hwee) has an area of 54,000 square miles 

STO. OF CHINA — 2 



i8 



and a population of over 36,000,000. It is about the same 
size as Arkansas, and has thirty times its population. It lies 
in the central and southern parts of the Great Plain. Its 
general aspect resembles Kiang-su, but it has not so many 
cities and is not so fertile. 

Kiang-si (keeahng-see) and Kiang-su are often- spoken 
of as the Two Kiangs. The area of Kiang-si is 68,000 square 
miles, with a population of 26,000,000. In area this province 
nearly equals the State of Missouri, but it has almost ten 
times the number of inhabitants. The surface is rolling 
and hilly, but well watered and fertile. Manufacturing is 
a leading occupation. 

Che-Kiang (chay-keeahng) covers 35,000 square miles 
and has 8,000,000 inhabitants. It is the smallest of the 
provinces, being somewhat larger than Maine, with more 
than ten times its population. It is one of the healthiest and 
most beautiful provinces of the Empire. Fine forest and 
fruit trees abound. There are many large towns. Marco 
Polo said of the capital. Hang-chow, that of all the cities, it 
was " beyond dispute the noblest in the world." 

Fuh-Kien (foo-kien) is one of the coast provinces facing 
the Formosa Strait. Within an area of 45,000 square miles 
it supports 23,000,000 inhabitants. As large as the State 
of Pennsylvania, it has almost four times its population. 
Most of this province is highly cultivated, and the people 
are comparatively prosperous. Two of its cities, Amoy 
(ah-moy) and Foochow, are treaty ports. 

Kwang-tung (kwanhng-toong) has an area of 90,000 
square miles and a population of 20,000,000. Although not 
quite so large, it has fifty times the population of the State 
of Oregon. Its capital is Canton, the largest city of China, 



19 

and the one best known to us, since before 1842 it was the 
only place where foreigners were permitted to trade. It 
is situated on the Pearl River. Its inhabitants number 
some of the wealthiest merchants of China. 

The coolies and laundrymen, so common in the United 
States, come, without any exception, from this province. 

Kwang-si (kwahng-see) extends over 80,000 square miles, 
and has a population of 8,000,000. Smaller than Kansas, it 
has five times the number of inhabitants. Its principal 
waterways are the West River and its tributaries. Woo 
Chow and Nanning, on the West River, are the largest 
trading towns. 

Yun-nan (yoon-nahn), the southwest province, has an 
area of 122,000 square miles and a population of 6,000,000. 
It suffered greatly from the Mohammedan rebellion, and the 
plague which followed. In size it compares with New 
Mexico, but it has thirty-five times the number of people. 
It is mountainous and high, and its mineral wealth is im- 
mense. The Yang tsz' River runs through it, bearing the 
name of River of the Golden Sand. 

Kwei-chow (kwhy-chow) has 64,000 square miles, and 
about 6,000,000 people. It is not as large as Washington, 
but it has nearly fifteen times as many people. Agriculture, 
although largely engaged in, brings poor returns, and its 
great mineral wealth is almost untouched, owing to lack 
of transportation. The result is that the people are poor. 

Shen-si (shen-see) has about 80,000 square miles, and 
a population of about 8,000,000. Less in extent than Min- 
nesota, it has over five times its population. This province 
is the greatest agricultural part of the northwest. It has 
such natural defenses that it is called "the center of resistance 



20 



of Middle China." Sian-Fu (seeahn-foo), its capital, was 
the capital of the Empire for a long, long time. During 
the Tang Dynasty, that is, while the Tang family reigned 
over China (a. d. 618-903), China was probably the most 
civilized country in the world. Sian-Fu was then called 
Chang-ngan. It is often thought that the present govern- 
ment of China will move from Peking to this ancient 
capital. 

Kan-suh (kahn-soo) is the largest of the provinces, as 
it extends over 260,000 square miles, with a population of 
about 20,000,000. Its size is greater than Colorado and 
Wyoming taken together, and it has thirty-six times the 
population of these States. It borders upon Thibet, and its 
altitude is great. 

Sze-chuen (szay-chooen) is the richest and most populous 
of the provinces. Within an area of about 180,000 square 
miles, it has a population of probably 60,000,000, or as 
much as the United States east of the Mississippi, although 
it is not as large as Nebraska and Nevada. As. New York 
is sometimes called the Empire State, so Sze-chuen deserves 
the name t)f the Empire Province. " In the mountains," 
says Mrs. Bishop, " there are a number of large and hand- 
some farmhouses, each with its cedar and cypress groves ; 
and mandarins' country-houses, rivaling some of our re- 
nowned houses in size and stateliness, are frequent. As the 
country grows more open, there are fortified refuges on 
rocky heights, great temples with porcelain fronts in rich 
coloring, paper and flour mills, and every town and large 
village has its special industry — silk-weaving, straw-plaiting, 
hat-making, dressing hides, iron or brass work, pottery and 
china, chair-making, dyeing, carving and gilding idols, 



21 



making the red paper used for religious and festive pur- 
poses, and the imitation gold and silver coins burnt as 
offerings, etc. — everything indicates industry and prosperity 
and a certain security for the gains of labor." 

Chung-king (choong-king) is the only treaty port in Sze- 
chuen. Chingtu, the capital, lies on the Min River. 




A Chinese Farmyard 

Hu-peh (hoo-pay) has an area of 70,000 square miles and 
28,000,000 inhabitants, or is about as large as North Dakota, 
with a population about ninety times as great as that State. 
Its southeastern part is thought to be the most fertile in 
China. Three large cities — Wu-chang (woo-chang), the 
capital, Han-Kow and Han-yang — lie opposite on the Yang 
tsz', the Ilan River separating Han-Kow from Han-yang. 



22 



Han-Kow was intended to be, and probably will be at some- 
time, the railroad center of China, being almost at equal 
distances from Peking and Canton. Large workshops have 
been established at Han-yang. 

Hu-nan (hoo-nahn) contains 83,000 square miles, or is 
about the same size as Idaho, and has a population of 
20,000,000, or about one hundred and thirty times that of 
Idaho. The province is rich, but the people are quarrelsome 
and hate foreigners. 

Area 
Provinces. in Population.' 

Sq. M. 

1. Chih-h (chee-lee) 57,ooo 36,000,000 

2. Shan-si (shahn-see) 66,000 17,000,000 

3. Shan-tung (shahn-toong) 53,ooo 30,000,000 

4. Ho-nan (ho-nahn) 67,000 29,000,000 

5. Kiang-su (keeahng-soo) 40,000 40,000,000 

6. An-hui (ahn-hwee) 54,000 36,000,000 

7. Kiang-si (keeahng-see) 68,000 26,000,000 

8. Che-Kiang (chay-keeahng). . . . 35,000 8,000,000 

9. Fuh-Kien (foo-kien) 45,ooo 23,000,000 

10. Kwang-tung (kwahng-toong). . 90,000 20,000,000 

11. Kwan^-si (kwahng-see) 80,000 8,000,000 

12. Yun-nan (yoon-nahn) 122,000 6,000,000 

13. Kwei-chow (kwhy-chow) 64,000 6,000,000 

14. Shen-si (shen-see) 80,000 8,000,000 

15. Kan-suh (kahn-soo) 260,000 20,000,000 

16. Sze-chuen (szay-chooen) 180,000 60,000,000 

17. Hu-peh (hoo-pay) 70,000 28,000,000 

18. Hu-nan (hoo-nahn) 83,000 20,000,000 



1,514,000 421,000,000 



^ These numbers are those originally accepted as nearest the truth. 
Chinese enumerations are not wholly reliable. 



PRODUCTS OF CHINA 

POOR as the great number of Chinese are, the country is 
well cultivated, and unless some disaster occurs pro- 
duces large crops. The first thing that strikes a visitor is the 
exceedingly small size of the farms ; next, the simplicity 
of the farming implements ; and, lastly, the variety of the 
crops. 

The vast number of people accounts easily for the smiall 
size of the farms ; there are very few farmers in China, but 
the number of peasants is very great. They do not like 
to use machinery, but prefer to employ men and women. 
What implements they have are exactly the same as those 
which their ancestors used two thousand years ago. They 
use plows, harrows, and hoes, and sometimes a spade, but 
all of very simple make. The plow is sometimes drawn 
by buffaloes, but often men and women are employed. They 
use water wheels and chain-pumps to irrigate the land. 
Water wheels are seen on the banks of most rivers, the 
current moving the wheel, and pouring the water into a 
large trough. This trough empties into several channels, 
which run In various directions through the fields, and 
thus keep them constantly watered. The wheel itself is a 
large machine, but very light, since it is made of bamboo, 
as are the buckets for raising the water. The chain-pump 

23 



24 



is used to draw water from wells and ponds, and is very 
useful because it can be easily moved. 

The principal food of the Chinese is rice, and the plains 
often seem one vast rice field, of a bright green color at 
first, but turning yellow when the rice is getting ripe 
The seed is sown first in small patches ; as soon as the 
shoots are five or six inches high, they are transplanted to 
the fields, where the laborers drop them into holes, about 




Plowing with the Buffalo 

six together. These men stand up to the ankles in water, 
for the rice must be kept constantly wet, or it would be 
spoiled. As soon as the rice is ripe the fields are drained. 
The harvest is about midsummer. A second crop is usually 
planted at once, which is harvested in November, after 
which the ground is planted with cabbages or some other 
vegetable. Sometimes there is no second crop of rice, but 
cotton is planted instead. 



25 



In the northwestern provinces, where it is often too 
cold or dry to' raise rice, wheat, millet, or some other grain 
is grown. 

One of the' most important of Chinese productions is the 
tea shrub, which is a species of camellia bearing a white 
flower without odor. It is most frequently seen about the 




Irrigating a Rice Field 



Yang tsz', and in the province of Fuh-Kien. In these tea 
districts large quantities of young plants are raised every 
year from seeds. These seeds are gathered in October and 
kept during the winter months mixed with sand and earth. 
They are sown thickly in the spring in the corner of a 
farm, and transplanted when they are about a year old and 



26 



ten inches high. They are then planted in rows about four 
feet apart. Five or six plants are placed in each hole, the 
holes again being four feet apart. They are allowed to grow 
three years, the ground between them being used to raise 
vegetables. 

The first crop of leaves, which produces the finest quality 
of tea, is picked in April. One person picks about thirteen 
pounds of leaves a day. These leaves are brought from the 
plantations and spread out thinly on small bamboo trays 
and exposed to the sun in order that the moisture may 
evaporate. In about two hours the leaves are dry. They 
are then thrown into roasting-pans, and rapidly moved about 
and shaken up. The leaves make a crackling noise, and 
after five minutes they are drawn out quickly and dropped 
upon the rolling-table, where a number of men are waiting. 

Each of these men takes as many leaves as he can press 
with his hands, and makes them up in the form of a ball, 
which is then rolled upon the table and pressed tightly, so 
that no moisture can remain. After this the leaves are shaken 
out upon flat trays, and again taken to the roasting-pan, 
where they 'are kept in rapid motion by the hands of the 
workmen. 

The tea is then passed over sieves of various sizes, so 
that no dirt can remain, and is then assorted. When this 
is finished, it is refined — the coarse kinds once, the finer 
kinds twice. 

Green tea is made either by a different method in curing 
the leaves, or by adding coloring matter. " Foreigners," 
the Chinese say, " like to have their tea uniform and pretty ;" 
so a little Prussian blue is used. The Chinese do not drink 
such tea. 



27 

A true Chinese will not drink cold water, because he 
dislikes it, and believes it will make him sick; but he can 
drink tea all day long. When they make it, they put a 
few leaves in the cup, and pour hot water over them when 
wanted; but in stores and other places tea is always kept 




Sorting Tea Leaves 

ready made. No milk or sugar is added. If a Chinese 
is traveling, he stops at an inn to take a cup of tea; if he 
makes a call, he is offered tea as soon as he arrives ; and 
if he receives a caller, he at once offers him a cup of tea. 
He takes a cup of tea before his meal so as to get an 



28 



appetite, and after a meal to promote digestion. This ex- 
cessive use of tea, however, does not seem to injure him. 

I will give here the advice of a Chinese expert as to 
how best to make tea: " Whenever the tea is to be infused 
for use," says Tung-po (toong-poh), "take water from a 
running stream and boil it over a lively fire." It is an old 
custom to use running water, boiled over a lively fire; that 
from springs in the hills is said to be the best, and river 
water the next, while well-water is the worst. '' When making 
an infusion do not boil the water too hastily, as first it 
should begin to sparkle like crabs' eyes, then somewhat 
like fishes' eyes, and lastly to boil up like pearls innumerable, 
springing and waving about." This is his elaborate descrip- 
tion of the way to boil the water. 

These are the names of six kinds of tea much liked by 
the Chinese: i. First Spring Tea. 2. White Dew. 3. Coral 
Dew. 4. Dewy Shoots. 5. Money Shoots. 6. Rivulet Gar- 
den Tea. Others are called White Hairs, Red Plum Blos- 
soms, Prince's Eyebrows, and Sparrow's Tongue. 

The tea shrub is from three to six feet high ; the leaf has 
a dark green color, and an oblong, oval shape. Each plant 
produces about half a pound of dried leaves a year. 

In the provinces near the Yang tsz' cotton is largely cul- 
tivated. Nanking has long been famous for its cotton cloth. 
Where mills have not yet been built, the weavers and spin- 
ners work at home. Before the planting of cotton was 
introduced, pastures with horses, cattle, and sheep were com- 
mon in the southern part of China ; but when the land began 
to be used for cultivation, these domestic animals were driven 
to the mountains. At present very few of them are seen in 
the plams. 



29 



. The silk districts are among tlie most populous and pros- 
perous ,of China. The -peasants are employed in taking care 
of the mulberry plantations, which require great attention. 
The silkworms are kept in houses surorunded by trees, for 
they must have absolute quiet, because it is known that 
any noise hurts the younger ones especially. The women of 
the family have the care of the worms, and of the silk as 
soon as it is spun. The best silk is produced in the provinces 
near the lower part of the Yang tsz', but this silk is not sold 
except to the richest Chinese. Their damasks and crepes 
are finer than those made in Europe, but their velvets are 
not so good. Women sometimes make thirty dollars a month 
by embroidering shawls. This is very large pay in a country 
where a laborer often makes only ten cents a day. 

One of the most useful plants is the bamboo. There 
are a great many varieties of this tree, differing in size, 
strength and color. It is used to build houses, to make water 
pipes, the cabins of sampans or family boats, ropes, etc. But 
the most useful articles made from, it are paper and hats. 

The Chinese use an enormous amount of paper. They 
all like to read and write, and besides, paper is always used 
in their sacrifices. The paper used for printing books is 
very thin and transparent, so that it can only be printed on 
one side and folded ; in a Chinese book every leaf is double, 
with the edge uncut. They do not bind books as we do, but 
every work is divided into a number of separate parts, with 
strong paper covers. The parts in this shape are placed 
together, loosety, in a square case or envelope, perhaps be- 
cause they do not like to hold a thick volume in the hand. 

The Chinese understood the art of printing hundreds of 
years before we did. There are so many thousands of 



30 



characters in their language that every time a book is 
printed, separate type must be made. Tlie usual method 
of printing is this : The copy is written on very thin paper 
and pasted en plain blocks, from which all the blank parts 
are carefully cut away. Thus the characters are left raised 
on the surface, and the type is an exact reproduction of the 




Bamboo 

writing. Movable type has now been introduced at Peking, 
Shanghai, and Hongkong, but this is very expensive, and 
the Chinese dislike to learn anything new. 

In the large cities there are streets occupied by book- 
sellers only. The older the book, the higher the price. They 



31 



say that in olden times men were better, wiser, and more 
honest. The Chinese Hke books on history best; but there 
are also books on medicine, agriculture, the Chinese lan- 
guage, religion, poetry, novels, and plays. 

Besides the bamboo, the tallow tree and the camphor tree 
are very valuable. The first produces a vegetable wax from 
which candles are made, but which is also sold and ex- 
ported. Camphor is a gum procured from the fresh gath- 
ered branches of the camphor tree ; of its wood trunks, 
chests, and household furniture are made. 

There is a small tree, a species of sumac, from which 
oozes a gum producing a varnish used to make lacquer. 
This varnish must be laid on perfectly smooth, and, as it 
requires many coats, each must be spread with the same 
nicety. This varnish will take any color without losing 
its brilliancy, so that all the painting is done upon the 
lacquered surface. 

In the southern provinces, that is, south of the Yang tsz', 
may be found : oranges, lemons, pomegranates, black and 
white mulberries, the vine, walnut, chestnut, peach, apricot, 
and fig trees. There are several fruits for which we have 
no English names, such as the lai-chi (lie-chee), the lung- 
yen (loong-yen), sometimes called dragon's eye. Many of 
these fruits are liked by foreigners. Potatoes, yams, tur- 
nips, onions, beans, and a white kind of cabbage called 
pih-tsie (pee-tsie), are carefully cultivated. 

In some parts of China the elephant, the rhinoceros, and 
the dromedary are found. There are bears in the hilly 
country west of Peking, and their paws are considered a 
delicacy by the people. Deer, wild boars, and foxes, are 
numerous in some provinces. There are tigers, leopards. 



32 



lynxes, hyenas, and jackals. The Chinese look upon the 
wildcat, of which there are large numbers in the forests, as 
a kind of game, and eat it after it has been fed in a cage 
for some time. 

Some of the native birds are beautiful. The gold and 
silver pheasants have been brought to America, but the 
Reeves' pheasant is rare, even in China. Its tail feathers 
are exceedingly beautiful, and six feet long. Another is 
called the medallion pheasant from the shape of a variety 
of colors which appear when it is excited. Immense flocks 
of wild geese and ducks cover the rivers and lakes in win- 
ter. A teal duck, known as the mandarin duck, is very 
common. The fishing cormorant is a brown bird resembling 

a pelican, with yel- 
low bill, white 
throat, and whitish 
breast spotted with 
brow n. W h e n 
they are employed 
in fishing for their 
owners, the birds 
have a ring around 
the lower part of 
the neck, so that 
Fishing Cormorants ^hey can not swal- 

low the fish. When they have finished their work, this 
ring is removed, and they are allowed to fish for themselves, 
A family owning two or three of these birds can easily sup- 
port itself. Quails are very plentiful, and the " rice bird " 
appears about Canton during the harvest. Fish is eaten in 
large c[uantities by the people, and almost every variety 




33 

known to us is found along the coast or in the rivers and 
lakes. . Foreigners are fond of sturgeon, soles, carp, and 
shrimps. Our beautiful silver and gold fish came first from 
China. 

Among the insects is a monstrous spider that feasts upon 
small birds just as our spiders eat flies. Locusts sometimes 
spread over a section of land and devour the crops. In the 
hills east of Canton butterflies of large size and brilliant 
colors are found ; also night moths, which are caught and 
sent to Peking. Throughout the south, sphinx-moths of 
great beauty are common, as are crickets and fireflies. The 
most valuable insect is, of course, the silkworm. 



STO. OF CHINA 3 



II. THE PEOPLE 



HOW THE CHINESE ARE- GOVERNED 

WHEN we speak of China and its monarch, we call 
him an emperor and we call his country an empire. 
We do this because we have no better name. China, from 
its size, may deserve to be known as an empire ; but the 
Solitary Man, who sits in the Purple Forbidden City at 
Peking, is certainly not an emperor. 

The Chinese speak of him as Tien-tsz' (teen ts), that is, 
Son of Heaven. Sometimes they mention him as Hwang- 
Shang, or die August Lofty One. He is the High Priest, 
who stands between the people and the gods. But he is 
more than that, for he is the common father of all the 
people. 

In another chapter I have told you that to love and 
reverence their fathers is taught to Chinese children from 
their babyhood. No crimes are punished so severely as 
those showing disrespect for parents. The father is complete 
master in his family ; he may sell his wife and his children. 
The Chinese do not like or admire a man who does so; but 

34 



35 



if he wishes to do it, nobody can stop him. Therefore the 
Son of Heaven at Peking, as the common father of all the 
people, may do as he pleases, and the people must obey. 




A Chinese Family 

As the Son of Heaven, he is also the High Priest. No- 
body but he can worship at the great Altar of Heaven, and 
when he performs that ceremony, he does it for his people. 



36 

If there is a flood, a long drought, a famine, or a plague, m 
any part of the vast country, it is the duty of the Tien tsz' 
to blame himself, and to punish himself; because he con- 
siders that the evil is owing to his neglect of duty. When 
he takes the blame upon himself, or punishes himself, it is 
announced in the King-Chan (king-chow), which means 
literally Court Records, but which foreigners in China call 
the Peking Gazette, and which is really the oldest newspaper 
in the world. It is distributed over every part of China, and 
anybody may subscribe for, and read it. 

As a father, the Tien-tsz' is expected to treat the people 
as his children, that is, to show them kindness, sympathy, and 
love. As a High Priest he lives in the Purple Forbidden 
City, where he can be seen by nobody, except by the mem- 
bers of his own family and high officers of state. When 
he intends leaving the palace, his route is chosen and an- 
nounced ni time to have^ the streets cleaned, curtains 
stretched at both sides, and orders given that no one shall 
show himself, either in the streets or in the houses. 
The emperor is carried on a canopied platform upon the 
shoulders ©f eighteen men. Ever3'thing he uses has a par- 
ticular color, and this color may not be used by the people. 
The color of the cover of this book is called Imperial Yellow. 
If it were sold in China, the people would think that it had 
come from the palace. 

The outward gate of the palace must be passed on foot. 
The oldest statesman must leave his sedan chair here at 
the gate. Only the Tien-tsz' may use the paved walk lead- 
ing up to it. ThCff^-apty throne must be worshiped as if 
he were sitting on it. A screen of yellow silk over a chair 
is looked upon while the Chinese falls upon his knees ; 



37 



and when Li Hnng Chang or any other Viceroy received 
a dispatch from the palace at Peking, incense was burned 
and he knelt down as he received it. 

Since the Son of Heaven can not do everything himself, 
he employs officers to act in his place. In the chapter on 




The Throne of the Empress-Dowager 

Examinations I shall tell 3'oii how these officers are chosen. 
If the officers do not do their duty, or if they are too 
severe or cruel, the people often complain in this way : " A 
strange way for parents to treat thei^ xldren !" 

China Proper, as you know, is divided into eighteen 
provinces. These eighteen provinces have eleven govern- 



38 

ments, at the head of each of which is a Tsung-tuh (tsoong- 
tooh) or Viceroy, or a Fu-yuen (foo-yooen), one rank below 
the Viceroy, but having so nearly the same authority that 
he is addressed as Viceroy by foreigners. 

These Viceroys, each in his province or provinces, — for 
one Viceroy sometimes rules over two provinces, — have the 
same authority as the Son of Heaven exercises over the 
whole country. But their first duty is to preserve law and 
order. If any disturbance or riot breaks out in their prov- 
ince, they are sharply called to account, and may lose, not 
only their position, but also their heads. They are made 
responsible even for accidents which they can not help. 
Li Hung Chang more than once asked the Tien-tsz' to 
punish him, because heavy rains had caused a flood in his 
province. Chang Chih Tung (chahng chee toong), a Vice- 
roy almost as well known as Li, asked to be removed from 
office because there had been a drought, followed by a 
famine. The Viceroy, like the Tien-tsz', has power over 
life and death. 

Each province is again divided into several tao (tahoh), 
literally a circuit, but which we might call a county. At 
the head is the taotai (tahoh-tie), who is really a deputy 
of the Viceroy, and responsible to him. They are superior 
to the other officers of the county. The county is again 
divided into fu, chau, or ting (foo, chahoh, ting), which 
may be translated as districts. 

The people, however, are allowed to choose their own 
" elders," who decide disputes and quarrels. The Chinese, 
one and all, dislike the idea of employing a lawyer. " We 
don't want to have a man," they say, " who will try to tell 
us that right is wrong, and wrong is right." 



39 



Chinese officials, one and all, have a bad name. We 
have been told that they are dishonest, and rob the people. 
You must know, however, that a great many of these 
officials receive the same, or almost the same, pay that 
was given two thousand years ago, and at that time a 
penny in money would buy more than ten dollars will 
now. The salary of a Viceroy is not enough to pay one 
secretary ; yet out of his salary he is expected to pay sev- 
eral secretaries, and a small army of other officers. The 
government knows this and pays them an extra sum of 
money, about twenty times as much as the salary, but even 
this is not enough to meet expenses. The Chinese are 
aware of this, and are willing to pay an official a fair 
price for his services. Among the lower magistrates, how- 
ever, are many who are actually in league with thieves and 
robbers. Biit if the people think an officer is trying to rob 
them, they have several means of putting a stop to it. 

The lowest magistrate or officer of a district knows quite 
well that, if a complaint is made by the people of his dis- 
trict, the officer above him, or the county officer as we 
would say, will fine him one-half of all he has made, and 
that fine must be paid. There is no means of getting out 
of it. So he prefers taking less and keeping it all. It is 
the same with every officer, even with the Viceroys. 

Besides this, there are everywhere in China a number of 
])eople who have passed the examinations (see the chapter 
on Examinantions), and who are known to us as literati 
or men of letters, that is, learned men. These men may 
be put in office at any time, and they watch the officers, 
hoping, no doubt, that if one is removed, they may have a 
chance to be appointed to his post. The Government at 



40 



Peking has the names and addresses of all these literati, 
and is not at all sorry to use them as spies upon the 
officers. 

There is another good reason why officers should behave 
themselves. They are appointed for a term of three years, and 
their record is kept at Peking. If they have made a good 
record, it is likely that they will be promoted. These are 




Chinese Literati 



the rules for an officer : No officer can be appointed in the 
district where he was born, and he can not marry a girl 
from the district where he holds office, nor own land there ; 
nor can he have a son, brother, or any other near relative 
holding office under him. An officer knows, therefore, that 
every man under him may be a spy, and that, if he does 
wrong, the fact will be reported, and count against him 
when his term of offixe expires. 



41 



As you know, the President of the United States has a 
number of men around him, each of whom is at the head 
of a department, which he manages for the President. 
These men have the title of Secretary, — as Secretary of 
State, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Treasury, 
etc. The Secretary of State carries on the business of 
the government with other nations ; the Secretary of the 
Treasury looks after the money of the United States, and 
pays the bills of the nation. 

China has eight such departments, but the heads of these 
do not, as in the United States, act as advisers. That 
ofiEice belongs, first, to the Nui Koh (nwee koh). This is 
a council made up of six men, four councilors and two 
assistant councilors, half of whom are ]\Ianchu and half 
Chinese. This council informs the Tien-tsz' about the 
business of China. When he asks them for advice, they 
write it on a slip of paper, and fasten it to the paper under 
discussion. After everything is finished, they present the 
paper to the Tien-tsz', who by a stroke of his vermilion 
pencil marks the advice which he selects. That advice 
becomes at once a law, and is published in the King-Chau 
or Peking Gazette. 

The second council is the Kiun-Ki Chu (keeoon-kee 
choo), or General Council. This is the most influential body 
in the government. The members of this council meet every 
morning between five and six o'clock in the Forbidden City, 
and attend to whatever business may be before them. If 
they are called by the Tien-tsz', they sit upon mats or low 
cushions, for no one is permitted to sit on a chair in his 
presence. In times of war, every question is decided in this 
council. 



42 



The eight departments are : 

1. The Li-Pu (lee-poo), or Department of Civil Service. 

It appoints the officers, promotes, removes, rewards, 
or punishes them, and grants or denies requests for 
leave of absence. 

2. The Hu-Pu (hoo-poo), or Department of Revenue, is 

almost the same as our Treasur}^ Department. 

3. The Le-Pu (lay-poo), or Department of Religion, con- 

trols and directs everything belonging to ceremonies. 

4. The Ping-Pu (ping-poo), or Department of War, also 

embraces the Navy Department. As the name shows, 
it is supposed to look after the army and navy. 

5. The Hing-Pu (hing-poo), or Board of Punishments, 

somewhat resembles our Department of Justice and 
Supreme Court combined. 

6. The Kung-Pu, or Board of Works, is to some extent like 

our Department of the Interior. 

7. The Li Fan Yuen (lee fahn yooen), or Colonial Office, 

directs the affairs of the provinces beyond China 
Proper, as Mongolia, Koko-Nor, etc. 

8. The TsHng-li Yamen (tsoong-lee yahmen), or Foreign 

Office, transacts business with other nations. 
One of the most important parts of the government is the 
Tu-chah Yuen (too-chah yooen), or Censorate. Its first duty 
is to see that manners and customs are kept unchanged. 
You will understand now why it is that our customs are 
not introduced into China. The man who should dare to 
introduce them, would be a traitor, and, if he were caught, 
would probably lose his life. The Censorate also keeps a 
record of all the officers, and does not hesitate to blame a 
Viceroy or even the Tien-tsz' himself. There are numerous 



43 



instances where the Tien-tsz' was roundly told the truth by 
these censors. It is, of course, ticklish work, especially if 
the Son of Heaven is a man who has a will of his own. 
A great number of censors have been punished with death 
for expressing themselves too freely. But the Tien-tsz' 
knows that every one of his acts may be criticised in this 
manner, and it makes him careful. 

In the last six years the Censorate has opposed every 
movement toward progress in China. Many high officers 
who were in favor of reforms, said plainly that they dared 
not express themselves openly, for fear of being reported. 
The Board of Punishment has no regard for rank or wealth, 
and a Viceroy's head is cut off just as easily as a beggar's. 



EXAMINATIONS: 
HOW OFFICERS ARE APPOINTED • 

THE author of a recent book on China' mentions as one 
of the reasons for the long existence of the Chinese 
nation that all her officers are taken from among" the people. 
That is quite true. Just as every American-born boy may 
sometime be President of the United States, so every 
Chinese boy, however poor and humble his parents, may be 
Prime Minister of China. Many of the highest ministers 
of State have been poor boys. Wen Hsiang (wen hsee- 
ahng), for many years prime minister, was the son of a 
farmer who leased ten acres of land. His successor in 
office, Shen Quel Fen (shen khwy fen), was the son of a 
street peddlter who did not earn more than ten cents a day. 

To be an officer means honor and wealth. Anyone who 
passes the necessary examinations may be put into office, 
and all Chinese may be examined, excepting only the sons 
of actors, executioners, jailers, and of such people as are 
supposed to lead a bad life. ■ No person can be examined 
within three years of the death of his father or mother ; 
for during that time the son is supposed to be mourning, 
and not thinking of anything else. 

' The Real Cliinanian, Chester Holcombe ; Dodd, Mead & Co. 

44 



45 

Persons from almost every class of society may become 
candidates for degrees. All officers must be graduates of 
the second or third degree. Nothing is required except a 
thorough knowledge of the writings of Confucius and Men- 
cius. The reason of this is that these writings teach virtue, 
and every officer should be a virtuous man. 

Two examinations must be passed before a candidate 
may present himself for the first or lowest degree. The 
first examination is by the district judge. If the candidate 
succeeds, he will be examined by the judge of a Fu City, 
or county seat. If successful, he receives a certificate of 
scholarship, but no degree. He may now send in his papers 
for the real examination. 

These papers must state the candidate's name, age, stature, 
complexion, the place of his birth, the names of his father, 
grandfather, and principal teacher. It must be signed by 
two graduates as securities. These graduates are well 
known, and are responsible for the candidate's character 
and behavior. 

There are from three thousand to six thousand candidates 
at these examinations, and, since the hall will not hold 
them all, they are called by districts. No candidate is per- 
mitted to enter the hall unless the graduate who is his 
security is present, to answer for him when his name is 
called. After he is admitted, the candidate is taken to his 
seat. He is not allowed to bring any books, but only writing 
material and a little food. 

When the candidates are, seated, subjects are given out 
for two compositions and one poem. The subjects are 
usually some saying of Confucius or INIencius. Each can- 
didate is supposed to know the rules and regulations. The 



46 



v/ork must be finished before night. The name of the 
writer is written on one corner, the paper is folded over 
and pasted so that the name can not be seen, tmtil the 
merits of the work have been decided; 

Those whose compositions are considered the best, are 
called for another examination. They must write from 
memory from a book called the " Sacred Edict," and it 
must be done with perfect accuracy. After this is finished 
and inspected, the names of the successful candidates are 
announced. They receive the first degree, known as Siu- 
tsai (seeoo-tsie), or " Beautiful Ability." The number of 
successful candidates is very small. To secure impartiality, 
this examination is held under the direction of a scholar 
from Peking. 

Every three years the examinations for the second degree 
are held at the provincial capitals under two graduates 
from Peking, sent especially for this purpose. Graduates 
of the first degree, to the number of from 5,000 to 8,000, 
come from all parts of the province. The wealthiest come 
with servants and friends ; but most of them are so poor 
that they must borrow the money for their expenses. 

The large examination hail in the provincial capital is 
divided into little cells or closets enough to accommodate 
about 10,000 candidates. They bring bedding and food with 
them, for they must remain two days. No friends or 
servants are permitted to enter. When all the candidates 
are in, the doors are shut, and no one can enter or leave 
until the time for writing the compositions is past, and 
they have been handed in. 

Three compositions and one poem must be finished. They 
are delivered to examiners, who look them over, and those 



47 



which have bad mistakes are thrown out. Those which are 
approved are copied in red ink by clerks, and each copy 
is carefully compared with the original. This is done so 
that the handwriting of a candidate shall not be recognized. 




Examination Hall 

The papers are now for the second time examined by other 
scholars, and those which are good, receive a round red 
mark. All others are refused. The approved compositions 
are then placed in the hands of the chief examiners, and 
those of the greatest merit are selected by them. 

On the morning of the third day the gates are opened, 
and the candidates come out. The next day they must 
submit to another examination, and write other composi- 



48 



tions and a poem. Again they are given a day's vacation, 
and then a third examination is held. 

After all the papers are in, and have been carefully ex- 
amined, the result is announced. The successful candidates 
number about one out of every hundred. These receive 
the second degree of Kyu-jin (keeoo-gin), that is "Pro- 
moted Men." 

Men who are of weak health can not support the fatigue 
of these examinations. Several are found exhausted, and 
not a few die, in which case the body is carried over the back 
wall, as it Avould bring bad luck to take it through the front 
door. Whenever a candidate breaks any of the rules, he is 
reported and his name is posted on the outer door of the 
hall. After this he is not allowed to enter until another 
examination comes around. 

Every three years another examination is held at Peking. 
Graduates of the second degree are helped with their trav- 
eling expenses by money from the treasury. They come 
from all parts of the empire, and from two hundred to three 
hundred candidates succeed. These may be kept at Peking, 
or they ni^y be appointed to office in the provinces. Their 
degree is Tsinsz' — " Entered Scholars," or Doctors. 

There is another examination at Peking for Han-lin 
(hahn-lin), or " Member of the Academy." This, however, 
is. an office, and not a degree. 

There are also military examinations. These consist in 
lifting heavy weights, bending bows, shooting arrows at a 
target, shooting from horseback, and sometimes shooting 
at a mark with a gun. 

The chief part of a military examination is to shoot at 
a mark with bow and arrow from horseback. It is amusing 



49 



to see it. The horse is led into a trench by a groom. This 
trench runs in a perfectly straight line, and is about two feet 
wide, so that the rider can not easily be thrown off by the 
horse shying. When the rider is seated, the horse is started 
by a cut from the whip of a groom. The arrow is shot at a 
bundle of straw about six feet around, and not more than 
five feet distant from the trench. The successful candidates 
are made officers of the army. 

I have told you that about one in every hundred of the 
candidates for the second degree succeeds, and that there 
are usually about 8,000 in every province. What becomes 
of the other 7,920 ? Some of them continue studying, and 
present themselves every three years until they die of old 
age or perhaps broken-hearted. Many of them enter into 
business; but most of the graduates of the first and second 
degree are the literati, that is, scholars' who hold no office. 
They are usually poor, and many are engaged as teachers 
in village schools, or as tutors in the families of wealthy 
men. 

All the learning these men have acquired after many 
years of hard study, is a knowledge of the writings of Con- 
fucius and Mencius. The object, naturally, to go to school 
again, and to learn the studies which we think necessary. 
They, therefore, oppose every effort to introduce our schools 
or school system, and, since they possess great influence 
among the people, it is difficult to see how China can be 
reformed. 

It has frequently been said that degrees and offices can 
be bought in China. It is true that literary degrees may 
be secured for money, but such a degree does not entitle 
the bearer to office. Every rank in China is shown by 

STO. OF CHINA — 4 



50 



a certain uniform, but especially by the button on the 
hat. This rank brings with it certain privileges, and 
wealthy people are willing to pay a reasonable price for 
them. It may be stated that the road to an ofhce can be 
reached only through the gate of examinations. But it 
would not be so easy to deny that money may" be, and is, 
used to influence promotion. 

You have seen from this that all that is necessary to 
enter official life in China is an extensive knowledge of 
the books of Con- 
fucius and Mencius. 
A scholar in these 
writings may be 
made a judge or 
hold some other re- 
sponsible position. 
The Chinese have a 
Constitution and a 
good Code of Laws. 
But they are scarcely 
ever studied, and the 
judge trusts to his 
own sense of what is 
right in deciding a case. 

All cases of whatever nature that are brought into court 
are decided by the same judge. Most of the disputes about 
debts or payments are settled by the village elders. Six 
tablets are placed at the governor's palace where complaints 
can be inscribed ; but the usual rule is to write the com- 
plaint, and to carry it to the governor or judge. 

The Chinese, however, dislike to make an appeal to the 




Mode of Punishment 



51 



Court. In criminal cases, no judgment can be given until 
the criminal has confessed, and for that purpose torture 
may be employed. It is stated that more persons die from 
this than from execution by law. 

The most common punishment for criminals is flogging 
with a bamboo weighing from two to two and two-third 
pounds. From ten to one hundred blows are given. Trans- 
portation, perpetual exile, and death are also punishments 
for various crimes. Visitors in China often see Chinese with 
a board round the neck, upon which the name, residence, and 
offence of the bearer are written. This is the Kia (kee-ah), 
or cangue. The frame of this board weighs from twenty- 
five to thirty pounds, and is made so as to rest upon the 
shoulders without chafing the neck, but it is so broad that 
the man can not feed himself. A policeman stands near him 
to see that he does not run off. 



THE TIE THAT BINDS 

THE word religion means " the tie that binds." The 
belief in Feng Shui (feng shooee), or the air-and- 
water spirit, is so general in China, that it may be called a 
part of the religion. But the real tie that binds is filial 
piety and ancestral worship. This is what holds the Chinese 
together, and molds them into one people. 

You know that the national character of a people depends 
greatly upon its belief or creed. The Chinese believe in 
a life after death, or they would not worship the spirits of 
their ancestors. Every religion has certain outward signs 
or ceremonies. If we wish to know something of a people, 
we must find out what they believe, and how that belief 
influences'thcm. If a Chinese should wish to find out some- 
thing of our belief, he would probably go to the different 
churches, and have a talk with their ministers. So the 
best we can do is to visit difir'erent temples in China, and 
to hear what their priests tell us. 

In Chinese cities you will frequently see a high wall, 
apparently surrounding an open space. If you enter through 
the gate, you will see first a large open court, with a stage 
for a theater at one end. A temple opens on the side op- 
posite the stage. As you enter you will see no idols, but 

52 



53 

instead a greater or less number of tablets, as the temple 
is old or new. 

If we ask the priest, he will tell us that this temple was 
built so many years, sometimes hundreds of years, ago by 
a wealthy man in honor of his father, and the tablets which 
we see are supposed to contain the spirits of this father 
and of all his descendants. These tablets are made of wood, 
and are about a foot high, three inches wide, and are placed 
upright in a block. The characters written upon them give 
the name and title of the deceased, the exact hour of his 
birth and of his death, and the names of his sons. The 
Chinese suppose that a man has three spirits, one of which, 
after death, dwells in this tablet, another in the tomb, and 
the third goes to a lower world, where it remains until it 
comes back to earth in another form. 

The temple also contains a number of paintings supposed 
to be likenesses of the deceased, although they are very un- 
like any living person. These paintings are brought out 
and worshiped only at the beginning of the new year, on 
the birthday anniversaries of the deceased, and when a the- 
atrical exhibition is given in their honor. 

All over China a holiday is kept in the beginning of April. 
It is called Pai Shan (pie shahn), or " Worshiping at the 
Hills." Everybody, men, women, and children, go to their 
family tombs, carrying a tray containing the sacrifices or 
food, and the candles, paper, and incense, for burning. Here 
the family pray, and worship the spirits of the dead. The 
grave is carefully repaired and swept, and before leaving, 
three pieces of turf are placed at the back and front so as 
to hold long strips of red and white paper. These strips 
show that the usual ceremonies have been performed, and 



54 

that the grave has been cared for. If a grave has been 
neglected for three years, the land may be sold. 

There is no more sacred spot to the Chinese than that 
occupied by the ancestral temple. Here rest the spirits of 
his ancestors ; here the members of the family meet on 
their own holidays, and here he expects his own spirit will 
finally rest, and receive its share of the worship. You know 
now the reason why the Chinese who come to the United 
States always provide for the return of their bodies to China, 
if they should have the misfortune to die here. They wish 
their bones to rest among those of their ancestors, so that 
their spirit may dwell in the ancestral temple. They can not 
imagine a more dreadful condition than for their spirit to 
roam in a strange land, homeless, uncared for, and unfed. 

On the day when the spirits of the ancestors are wor- 
shiped, food and drink are placed upon the grave. If you 
were to say to a bright Chinese : " They can not, and do 
not, eat anything; the food and drink, when you take it 
away to eat and drink it yourselves, is just the same as when 
you placed it there," he would probably answer : " That is 
quite tru€; we know very well that nothing is eaten or 
drunk ; but we Avish to give some outward token that we are 
grateful to them ; we wish to show how much we love the 
memory of our ancestors, how happy we should be if they 
could sit down to enjoy themselves with us, and if we could 
provide for their wants." 

Because all the Chinese worship in this manner, this 
ancestral worship is really the Chinese religion, or the 
tie that binds. There are a great many other temples, and 
people go there to pray, but only when they want something, 
and think this the speediest way to obtain it. 



55 

The word " Kiau " means *' to teach " or " a system of 
teaching." The Chinese use this word in speaking of the 
different temples, and what the priests teach. But since 
very few Chinese care anything for this teaching, it can 
not properly be called religion. 

Still, there are three different kinds of teaching, and just 
as many kinds of temples. The first is known as Ju-Kiau 
(joo kiow), which means " System of Teaching of the 
Learned." It is really nothing more than the worship of 
Confucius and his teaching. Over fifteen hundred of these 
temples are connected with the examination halls, and it 
is said that in one year over sixty-six thousand pigs, rabbits, 
sheep and deer, are offered and eaten by the worshipers, 
who also use the twenty-seven thousand pieces of silk pre- 
sented as offerings. 

The Tao-Kiau or Tao System of Teaching, is the oldest in 
China. It was founded by Lao-tsz' (lou-tsz), meaning " The 
Old Boy," because he was an old man when he was born. 
It is named Tao-ism (tou-ism) after the first word of Lao- 
tsz's book, which is Tao or Truth. His teachings recommend 
retirement and contemplation as the best means of purifying 
the nature. But the Chinese do not care to worship him. 
They have a greater respect for gods who are supposed to do 
them harm, than for those who may be able to help them. 
In the Tao temples the god who is most worshiped is Lu-tsu 
(loo-tsoo), who is thought to be the great medicine god, so 
they go to him to get a prescription. Here is the story of 
how Lu-tsu was changed into a god : 

About a thousand years ago there lived a scholar named 
Lu-tsu, who had passed the examination for the second de- 
gree. Being an ambitious man, he started for the capital 



56 

to be examined for the last or highest degree, and on his 
journey he stopped at an inn. He was very weary, for he 
had made a long march. A servant handed him a pillow 
to rest upon while supper was being prepared, and the 
scholar soon fell asleep. He dreamed that he had passed 
the examination, and was appointed to be an officer in the 
government. He was promoted very rapidly, until at last 
he was prime minister. Then he dreamed that he was an 
old man, and that it was his birthday. He was just cele- 
brating it with his sons and their children, and his friends 
when he awoke. When the servant entered he said to Lu- 
tsu : " So you have been prime minister, have you ?" " You 
must be one of the genii," replied the scholar, " for you 
have guessed it." The servant said : " I don't see why you 
should be disappointed that it was only a dream. Suppose 
your dream had come true ? When death comes, what is 
it all but a dream ?" Lu-tsu began to ponder what the 
servant had said, and at last he came to the conclusion that 
the man was right. He made up his mind to give up his 
ambitious plans,, and to do his best to be a good man. The 
servant gtfessed what Lu-tsu was thinking of, for he said : 
" If you desire to be a good man, I will teach you a secret 
by means of which you can change anything you point at 
into gold. Then you may help the poor, and do other kind 
acts." " Will the gold ever turn back to its previous con- 
dition ?" asked Lu-tsu. " Yes, after many years." '" In that 
case I do not wish to know your secret," said the scholar, 
" for I should not care to make a man glad, if he must be 
disappointed afterwards." " Why," exclaimed the servant, 
who was really one of the genii, " if you are such an honest 
fellow now, I will change you into one of us." He was as 



57 

good as his word, and Lu-tsii was at once promoted to the 
rank of god of medicine. 

You have all seen the Chinese flag. It is in the form 
of a triangle, a blue dragon upon a yellow shield. The 
dragon is also one of the gods of Taoism. All the divisions 
of water are subject to him, as well as all that live in them. 
He is also master of clouds, and waterspouts. He is so 
mighty a god that his name, " Dragon," is used to show 
the power of the Chinese Emperor, who, they say, is seated 
on the Dragon throne, and when you see him you see the 
Dragon face. Therefore, the Dragon is upon the flag and 
upon the Emperor's coat-of-arms. 

The Chinese believe that there really is a dragon, and some 
of them say that they have seen one. At all events, it is a 
familiar object on articles made by them. But 
all the representations of the dragon 
very much alike. If you were to ask 
a Chinese scholar the 
reason of this he would 
probably tell you this 
story : " During the 
reign of the Tsin em- Dragon on Chinese Flag 

perors (a. d. 265-317), one of these rulers decided to build a 
bridge over the surface of the sea, that he might enjoy the 
fresh salt air. The Dragon had a liking for this emperor, and 
because the work was to be done in his realm, he offered 
to take charge of it. The Emperor gladly agreed. One 
day, as he was going to see how the bridge was getting 
on, he met the Dragon in disguise, but he knew him at 
once. " Dragon," said he, " I would like to see you as you 
really are." " Well," replied the Dragon, " I don't mind ; 




58 



only you must promise me not to have my picture taken." 
" All right," said the Emperor ; and he saw the Dragon in 
all his beauty, just as you see him on the flag. But the 
Emperor forgot his promise, and had the picture taken by 
a skillful artist. The Dragon was very angry, but when 
the Emperor built him a temple his anger was appeased. 

Such stories as these make up Taoism or the Religion 
of Truth. The Chinese believe them, and a great many tales 
more wonderful still. There are not many Taoist priests, 
and when you ask them what they wish most, they answer 
that they hope to be one of the Sien-jin (seen-gin) or genii. 
Genii, they think, do not die, but pass from this life into 
another airy state, where they enjoy an everlasting dreamy 
happiness. 

In the hills or the forests, the temples and cloisters of 
the Buddhists are found. They search for solitude and 
peace, because they desire to think of nothing except rest. 
These temples, therefore, are always found in beautiful 
spots, and are always built on the same plan. 

They consist of several buildings, one directly behind the 
other. If i!he ground slopes, each building rises several feet 
above the one ■ in front of it, and is reached by a flight of 
stone steps. Artistically laid out paths lead to these temples, 
winding through groves of pine and bamboo, and over fine 
arched bridges. These parks are among the most beautiful 
spots in China. 

When you enter the first building, you see before you a 
large statue or image with an expression of contempt upon 
its face. This image is called Mi-leh-fuh (mee-lay-foo). It 
guards the temple, and is supposed to smile at the folly of 
man, who cares only for pleasure. Back of this image and 



59 



facing the door is another image, dressed in armor, and 
with a large battle club in the hand. This is Wei-to Poo-sah 
(wie-toh poho-sah), who, as the guardian god of the temple, 
protects it from thieves, evil spirits, etc. There are several 
other idols in this building. 

• The building immediately in the rear 
is about ninety feet wide, seventy feet 
deep, and from forty to fifty feet high. 
There are some temples even larger than 
this. It is called in Chinese : The Great, 
Glorious, Precious Temple. There are 
three images of Buddha or Fuh, as they 
call him here, viz., the Past, the Present, 
and the Future Fuh. These images are 
made of metal, stone, wood or clay. The 
largest have a framework of wood, cov- 
ered with mortar and gilded on the out- 
side. They have, or are supposed to 
have, a heart and other imitations of the 
human body, and are well 



executed. 

Some of the Buddhist 
temples have pagodas at- 
tached to them. These are 
built of stone or brick in 
many different stories, and 
are from eighty to two hun- 




Flower Pagoda, Canton 



dred feet high. They are a peculiar feature of the landscape. 
In Canton there are two pagodas and many temples, halls 
and pavilions. The appearance of a large Buddhist temple is 
really imposing, and the building shows great skill in archi- 



6o 



lecture. The roof is covered with fretwork, and figures of 
horses, elephants, etc. The interior is handsomely carved. 
These . temples have rooms specially prepared to receive 
wealthy guests. Foreigners in Peking usually pass the hot 
summer months in such temples in the hills west of the 
capital. The majority of worshipers of Buddha are women. 



THE BELIEF IN SPIRITS 

NO Chinese would start on a journey, build a house, 
marry, bury a relative, or even close a bargain, without 
first consulting the spirit world. He has no idea, and does 
not care to know, how many spirits there are ; but he thinks 
that the earth and the air are full of them. While he 
believes that there are kindly spirits who bring him good 
luck, he is far more concerned with the bad spirits, of 
whom he thinks there are a great number, all anxious to 
do him harm. He gives the latter presents in order to 
make them friendly toward him. 

It is not strange that where so man}^ people believe in 
spirits, men should be found who believe, or pretend to 
believe, that they can communicate with the spirit world. 
Every city in China has hundreds of such men, who do 
a thriving business, being consulted by rich and poor alike, 
and they charge a good price, according to the wealth or 
poverty of their customers. 

The priests in most of the temples make a living by fore- 
telling the future. These temples have an altar, and a big 
box in which the people throw their least valuable copper 
coins. Before the altar are several other boxes, shaped 
like part of a stovepipe, each containing little sticks with 
a number printed on them. There are also several wooden 
balls, cut in two. 

6i 



62 



When a man wishes to know what will happen to him 
in the future, he goes to such a temple, and throws into the 
box as much cash as he thinks proper. He then burns a 
candle and some incense before the horrible image of the 
god. After this, he takes one of the small boxes in his 
hand, and, kneeling before the altar, shakes it gently until 




A Chinese God 

one of the numbered sticks drops out of it. At the same 
time he asks the question which he would like to have 
answered. Then he picks up the stick, places it before the 
god, and returns the box to its place. To make sure that 



63 



he has the right number, he takes two of the half baUs in 
his hand, and drops them on the floor. If they fall on the 
flat side, the stick is the right one; but if they roll on the 
round side, the stick is wrong, and he must go through the 
ceremony all over again. After he has in this manner dis- 
covered the right number, he takes the stick to the priest, 
who selects a paper with the corresponding number on it, 
and gives it to him. On this paper is written a sentence 
just like those we sometimes find wrapped around some 
of our candy. That is the answer to his question. He may 
explain it as best suits himself, and if the answer proves 
wrong, hia- own explanation is at fault. 

When a Chinese finds out that a thief has visited his 
house, he does not call in a policeman or a detective, but 
a priest. This priest takes a plate and smoothes over it a 
carefully moistened paper. He then makes mystic motions 
over it, and rubs it with another wad of paper tightly rolled 
up, which he takes from his sleeve. Figures and houses 
appear on the paper in the plate, and at last comes the 
picture of the thief. I do not know if it is always the right 
picture, but if it is, we might learn something from the 
jChinese, as it is certainly a cheap way to play detective.* 

Every Chinese believes in the Yau-Kwei (yah-oo kwy), 
or genii. These are supposed to be men who have escaped 
death and entered upon spirit life. The Chinese believe that 
the Yau-Kwei can reappear in the body or without it, just 
as it suits them. 

When a person suffers from nightmare or sleeplessness, 
the Yau-Kwei are the cause of it. They are also blamed 
for bad dreams. The first and easiest way to get rid of 
them is to scold them roundly as soon as awakened. If 



64 



that does not succeed, one or two strong, healthy people are 
called in to pass the night with the patient, because it is 
thought that these spirits are afraid of the strong and only 
attack the weak. Should this fail to bring relief, a sword, 
wet with human blood, is brandished over the bed, or else 
a man is engaged who is said to be able to shoot spirits. 
Looking-glasses are hung upon the four walls of the bed- 
room, so that the Yau-Kwei has no opportunity to enter un- 
perceived. If the spirit still declines to leave, a complaint is 
made against it at the office of Chang-tien-tsz' (chahng- 
teents') or Chang the Son of Heaven, who resides in the 
province of Kiang-si, and who is supposed* to rule over the 
Yau-Kwei, and even over some of the gods. He has a seal 
containing a charm, and when he issues a command over 
it, all the genii tremble and obey. 

The patient, after paying well for it, receives a paper con- 
taining his name, place of residence, age, and a statement 
of the facts of his case, sealed by Chang's magic seal. The 
paper, after it has been burned, is supposed to be received 
by some god, who must see to it that the guilty Yau-Kwei 
is caught §nd punished. When such offending genii are 
caught, they are confined in sealed bottles. The Chinese, 
one and all, believe this to be true. They say that visitors 
have heard the noise made by these bottled Yau-Kwei, who 
make every effort to escape from their uncomfortable prison. 

The Kwei are supposed to be the ghosts of the dead. 
They are thought to be the spirits of those men whose 
sins were not so bad as to condemn them to the place of 
the wicked, but who must wander about until they are fit 
to reappear in another state. These Kwei are very trouble- 
some to the Chinese. They roam about in search of food, 



65 

or rather of the smell of food, and when they visit a house 
and do not find what they want, they are angry and some- 
body in that house falls ill. Then the master of the house 
sends for a priest, who must find out what kind of a Kwei 
has been around, and what sort of food he likes. Some- 
times the patient gets better, but very often he does not. 
In that case it is probably the priest's fault. 

In the central and southern part of China, the climate is 
very unhealthful during August and September, and a great 
many people fall sick. The Chinese explain this by saying 
that during those two months the gates of hell are opened 
and the spirits are allowed a vacation or holiday. This 
accounts for the Fang yin-kau (fahng yen-kow), a sort of 
spirit holiday, sometimes called Shi-shih (shee-she). Dur- 
ing these months every locality has a day appointed when 
a feast is set out upon tables in open places or courts. Pat- 
terns of clothing made of paper in different sizes and colors 
are hung around, and priests are engaged to see that every- 
thing is done properly. As soon as it grows dark, lanterns 
are suspended from high bamboo poles to guide the Kwei 
to the food. The priests begin to howl their incantations, 
while others beat upon the tom-toms, producing a deafening 
noise. All this excitement is kept up until daylight, when 
the spirits are supposed to be satisfied and to have left for 
another spot. The patterns of clothing are burned for their 
benefit, and the food, always of an inferior quality, is given 
to beggars. 

It is impossible to mention all the different names given 
by the Chinese to the supposed dwellers of the air and 
water. But special notice must be taken of the Feng 
Shui,' because it exercises great influence upon the daily 

STO. OF CHINA — S 



66 



life of the people, and is the real cause of their dislike of 
foreigners. The characters used in writing this word mean 
air and water, but the word Feng Shui should be translated 
by the phrase, " Principle of Life," although to the Chinese 
its meaning is " luck." 

Not one among those hundreds of millions of Chinese, 
from the Emperor down to the poorest coolie, would think 
of burying his father without first employing a Feng Shui 
man to find out a lucky spot. They suppose that by doing 
so the spirit of luck will enter into the body of the dead, and 
that it will follow his children and their children, wherever 
they may be found. 

From what I have seen in China, I think that the Feng 
Shui sin-sang, or Feng Shui doctors, honestly believe that 
they are able to discover lucky spots. It is certain that they 
have studied, for their conversation shows it, and they 
are held in great respect. Their charges are high, and their 
directions are strictly obeyed. 

When these Feng Shui or " luck doctors," are employed 
to find the lucky spot for a grave, they pass some days in 
examining* the general outline of the country, the hills, 
canals, rivers, any height or declivity, etc. They then 
secure the dates of the birth and death of the deceased and 
of other members of the family, and return home to con- 
sult their books. Sometimes the result is not given to the 
family for weeks, and the funeral is postponed. When the 
decision of the Feng Shui doctors is received, the land 
indicated as the lucky spot for the grave is bought at any 
price, if the family can afford it. This accounts for the 
fact that grave mounds are found all over China. There 
is no greater punishment for a Chinese than to have the 



6; 



tomb of his ancestors destroyed. He firmly believes that 
it ruins all his chances of luck, and this renders him des- 
perate. 

If the spot thus selected fails to bring the expected good 
luck, the Feng Shui doctors have always plenty of excuses 
to show that the luck was good at the time of the funeral, 
but that it must have changed since. Defacing a tomb, or 




Tombs Near Peking 

cutting down a tree near it, destroys the Feng Shui. A 
man convicted of such an offense is punished with great 
severity by the courts. 

When a Chinese decides to build a house, the Feng Shui 
doctor is in even greater demand than the architect. He 
determines the location of the doors and windows, points 
out where the furniture must be placed, and enters into the 



68 



most minute details. If, after all these precautions, sick- 
ness or other misfortune follows, another Feng Shui sin- 
sang is called in. After examining the premises, he may 
order one door closed and another made, or decide upon 
some slight change in the position of the furniture. If ill- 
luck continues, the doctor is again changed. Whatever dis- 
appointment a Chinese may meet, his faith in the Feng 
Shui is never shaken. 

When new canals are constructed, or railroads laid out, 
the general outline of the country must necessarily change 
somewhat. This disturbs the Feng Shui of every grave 
within sight, and fully accounts for the opposition shown 
by the people to such improvements. Nor is it only the 
ignorant who are governed by this belief. The more highly 
a man is educated among the Chinese, the greater is his faith 
in, and fear of, the Feng Shui. But it must be remembered 
that Chinese education means the knowledge of Chinese 
literature only. That is the study of what was known two 
thousand years ago, and no account is taken of the progress 
made since that time. 



THE CHINESE PEOPLE 

CHINA is the only one among the nations that has worked 
out a civilization entirely its own. Other nations have 
borrowed or adopted, but China has always been unwilling 
to do so. As a nation China is so old that we are scarcely 
able to form an idea of its age. It was a civilized nation 
in the time of Abraham, and was highly civilized when the 
people of Europe could neither read nor write. But from 
that time to this the Chinese have made no progress, and 
much of their life to-day is the same as it was thousands 
of years ago. 

Western nations do not understand the Chinese, and 
they, in turn, do not understand us. In the first place, their 
language is difficult to learn, because they have almost as 
many different characters as words. While every character 
represents the same idea, the word for it is pronounced so 
differently in the different provinces that it is impossible to 
recognize it. 

You will understand this better if you remember that a 
Russian can understand our figures, i, 2, 3, etc., when he 
sees them written or printed, but when we pronounce the 
figures or numbers, the sound conveys no meaning to him. 
In the same way, if a Frenchman were to tell you that the 
number of a certain article was, for instance, huit, you would 

69 



70 



not know what he was talking about, unless you had studied 
French. But if he were to take a piece of paper and write 
on it 8, you would understand him at once. It is exactly 
the same all over China. Here, for instance, is a character 
meaning the eye : M Every Chinese, when he sees that 
character, knows its meaning; but, in speaking of the eye 
a Peking man calls it muh, and a Fuh-Kien man calls it 
bak-choo. 

In learning any European language we are aided by cer- 
tain resemblances to our own, or to other languages with 
which we may be acquainted. But with Chinese this is not 
so. We may have studied the languages of every civilized 
people that ever existed, but when we begin to study this 
language, we must begin all over again. And, since by 
language we express our thoughts, it is almost impossible 
for any of us to comprehend the Chinese mode of thinking. 

It would be unjust to call the Chinese a half-civilized 
people, but neither can we call them a highly civilized people 
at the present day. They for their part call us " foreign 
devils," because we do not know the first beginning of their 
laws of politeness and courtesy. Those who are better ac- 
quainted with us, secretly pify us, because we are so very 
ignorant and stupid. They niake fun of our short-cut hair, 
our tight-fitting clothes, our thin-soled leather shoes, and 
our gloves in summer time. They call the appearance of 
our ladies " wasp-like and ungraceful," and they think it 
very rude that a husband and wife should walk in the 
streets arm-in-arm. 

Compared to us, the Chinese are calmer and quieter, and 
not so easily made to lose their temper. They dislike fight- 
ing, although they do not readily yield. This dislike is not 



71 

from fear of pain, but because they do not like to be con- 
sidered rude. They are able to bear more pam than we 
are; they can work more continuously, and never ask for 
a holiday. They will do as they are told, when they con- 
sider it right ; but when they consider it wrong, no power 
on earth can make them obey orders. 

A great many look upon the Chinese as people who can 
not be made to understand what is good for them. This 
is wrong. The Chinese believe that they know more than 
we do, and that we should be glad to learn from them. 
Hundreds of years ago they understood printing, the use 
of the compass and of gunpowder; it is so long ago that 
they have almost forgotten when they first made silk, china- 
ware and porcelain. 

That is the real difference between the Chinese and our- 
selves. Their " past " has been so long, that they are al- 
ways looking backward. Our past has been very short, 
compared with that of China, and we live in the future. 
That is why we make progress, while they are standing 
still. 

We have had all the knowledge and experience of the 
oldest nations to draw upon, and we exchange ideas with 
every civilized nation. But the Chinese dislike and avoid 
any departure from the ways of their fathers. It must be 
remembered that respect, love, and veneration for his father, 
is taught the Chinese from his earliest youth. Speaking dis- 
respectfully to a parent is a crime to be punished with death, 
and no excuse is admitted. The Commandment, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the 
land which the Lord thy God hath given thee," has been 
scrupulously obeyed by the Chinese nation, 



^2 

The Chinese are neither dull nor stupid. Some years ago 
one of them, a student in Yale College, took the first prize 
in English composition. In Hongkong and other cities in 
China, many Chinese are living who were educated in Eng- 
land, and graduated as physicians and lawyers. They are 
considered by foreigners to be highly capable in their pro- 
fessions. 

It is said sometimes that the Chinese are " a nation of liars 
and thieves." It is quite true that in China, as in every 
Oriental country, politeness and courtesy are more highly 
thought of than a strict regard for the truth. But we must 
remember that just as we have been taught, from child- 
hood, to speak the truth, and to consider it disgraceful to 
lie, so in China the children are taught to be polite and 
courteous or to lose the respect of all. 

The family tie is very strong. The Chinese hate to move 
from one place to another. In some villages every family 
bears the same name, which is that of the village, too. For 
instance, there is Chang Kia (chahng keeah), the village 
Chang, or, as we might say: Changville; Sie Kia (see 
keeah), the^village Sie, or Sieborough. 

A son, when he marries, is expected to live with his 
parents, and his wife becomes the chief attendant to her 
parents-in-law, while every tie binding her to her own 
parents is dissolved. When a father dies, the oldest son 
becomes head of the family, and is in duty bound to provide 
for his younger brothers. The laws in such cases are very 
exact, and are invariably executed. While the position of 
woman is low in China, her standing in the family depends 
largely upon herself. Recent history has shown what a 
woman can do. The Empress -Dowager has broken many a 



73 

law of the Chinese ; she has passed through several revolu- 
tions, but she is ruling China still. 

Politeness or good manners is a science. If a man ask 
another, who may be ever so poor, where he lives, he 
must say: "Where is your mansion?" The person thus 
spoken to, even if he be rich and live in a palace, must re- 
ply : " My hut," or " my hovel is in such and such a street." 
"What is your honorable age?" "My worthless number 
is forty-five." "Is your noble son doing well at school?" 
" The contemptible little dog has learned a few characters." 
The Chinese father is excessively fond and proud of his 
sons ; for without them there would be no one to worship 
before his tablet after his death. To show an interest in a 
Chinese' sons always puts him in good humor. 

When a Chinese really does lose his temper, he uses very 
bad language, but he does not come to blows. If the insult 
or injustice is so great as to provoke murder, he does not 
kill the other man, but himself, because in doing so the 
other man is looked upon as a murderer, since he was the 
cause of the deed. They often kill themselves by swallow- 
ing poison, after first hiring men to carry their bodies to 
the door of their enemy. 

The costume of the Chinese men and women is loose 
and flowing. Most of the people wear homespun cotton, but 
the wealthy classes wear silk, satin, gauze, furs, and clothes 
of other expensive materials. Summer clothing is thin and 
light, but in winter one garment is put on over another 
according to the degree of cold. They have no stoves or 
fireplaces, and depend upon their clothing for comfort and 
heat. The time for the change from summer to winter 
wear, and vice versa, is announced by the Emperor. 



74 



The men shave the front part of the head, but keep a 
small patch on the top and back, which is allowed to grow, 
and when long enough is braided into a queue. Most of 
us are familiar with this Chinese headdress. In ancient 
times, however, the Chinese wore their hair long and bound 
about the top of the head. After the Manchu had conquered 
China, they issued an order that all the Chinese should adopt 
the queue as a sign of allegiance. At first the people ob- 
jected and refused to obey. The Manchu did not appear 





Chinese Little Feet, Showing Method of Binding 

to* notice this, but made an order that criminals must leave 
their heads unshaved, and have their queues cut off. The 
Chinese did not like to look like criminals, and the queue 
was adopted without further trouble. 

The Manchu did not bind the feet of girls, but among 
the Chinese it is done everywhere. The process begins when 
a child is about five years old. A cotton bandage two or 
three inches wide is wound tightly about the foot in dif- 
ferent directions, and among the higher classes the foot 
is not allowed to grow from this time. The horrid custom 



75 



has existed for so long that the Chinese themselves do not 
know when it was first practiced. 

The Chinese, rich and poor, eat their rice morning, noon 
and night. This constitutes the principal article of food. The 
poor have some relishes, such as fresh or salt fish, or 
vegetables. The rich have pork, fowls, eggs, fish, or game. 
Before each chair is placed an empty bowl and two chop- 
sticks, while the dishes containing the food are placed in 

the center of the table. The 
chopsticks are about eight 
inches long, and look some- 
what like our penholders. 
They are made of bamboo, 
wood, ivory, or silver. When 
seats are taken at the table, 
the bowls are filled with hot 
rice. The person at the 
head of the table takes his 
chopsticks in the right hand 
and, holding them between 
the thumb and fingers so 
that the lower ends ap- 
proach each other like a pair of pincers, takes one or two 
mouthfuls. The other persons follow his example. Then 
the bowl is brought to the lips by the left hand, " and the 
rice is pushed into the mouth by the chopsticks in the 
right hand. 

The Chinese have yet to learn habits of personal cleanli- 
ness, and the houses of rich and poor alike are dirty and 
untidy. 




Chopsticks 



MARRIAGE, BIRTH, AND DEATH 

YOUNG men or women are not supposed to have any- 
thing to say about marriage. When the father of a 
son thinks that it is about time that the young man should 
marry, he sends for a woman who is employed by families 
in the neighborhood to help at weddings and funerals, as 
it would be very improper for one parent to call on the other 
to arrange the matter. Such a woman is employed to find 
somebody of the same position and wealth as the young 
man's father who has a daughter of suitable age. If all 
is satisfactory, presents are exchanged, and the parents of 
the bride give a written agreement to those of the groom. 
The prospective bride and groom may be children, but that 
makes no difference. They are engaged, and nothing but 
death can end the engagement. 

When if has been . decided that the marriage shall take 
place, the first thing to do is to choose a lucky day. Nothing 
can be done without that. After the day has been selected, 
the bride begins preparations by having her eyebrows pulled 
out, so that she may be known as a married woman. 
On the morning of the " lucky " day, she is carried from 
her own home to that of her future husband in a beautiful 
sedan chair, used only for such purposes. After she has 
arrived at the groom's house, the young couple worship 
together before the spirit tablets of the groom's ancestors. 

76 



77 



The bride In doing so, parts from her own family to enter 
into that of her husband. This worsliiping togetlier is the 
real marriage ceremony. Then the bride and groom drink 
sam-shu, or native wine, out of the same cup, when the 




A Wedding Scene— Feasting the Bride 

bride removes her veil, and the young husband sees her for 
the first time. The day is spent in feasting and receiving 
congratulations. 

Meng tsz', or Mencius as he is called by us, is considered 
by the Chinese as the wisest man after Confucius. He says 



78 

in one of his writings : " There are three kinds of impiety, 
but the greatest of these is to be without sons." All the 
Chinese thmk that it is of the highest importance that every 
family should have at least one son. They want to be sure 
that the spirits of the dead ancestors will be supplied with 
food, and that sacrifices will be made at their tombs. If a 
wife has no children when she is forty years old, the 
husband may marry again ; but if the second wife has chil- 
dren, the first wife is looked upon as the mother. 

When there are many girls in a poor family, girl babies 
are sometimes drowned because the parents can not support 
them. In many parts of China the bodies of children are 
frequently seen floating in a river, or wrapped up in a mat 
outside a city wall, or hung from the branches of trees to 
keep them from the dogs. These babies have not been killed, 
but may have died of sickness. Some of them may have even 
been nursed tenderly. When a child dies the parents grow 
very angry. They think that some of their ancestors must 
have left a debt unpaid, and that the man to whom the 
money was due, entered into the body of the child to cause 
anxiety, Irouble, and expense. So the body of the poor 
child is thrown anywhere, and the house is swept, crackers 
are fired and gongs beaten, to frighten the Twan-ming 
Kwei (twahn-ming kwy), or short-lived devil, that it may 
never dare to enter the house again. 

It is on the funeral of parents that the Chinese spend 
most money. When a well-to-do man dies, the house is 
filled with people weeping and wailing, and calling upon 
the spirit to come back. Candles, incense, and food, are 
placed before the body. A company of priests is hired to 
come and chant prayers for the dead, and a quantity of 



79 



clothing is put in the coffin. For several days after the 
death different ceremonies are performed, and every seventh 
day until the forty-ninth day. 

The coffin is of well-seasoned wood, the planks sawed 
very thick and nailed together with large spikes, and coated 




Chinese Funeral 



over with a very hard varnish. The lid is nailed down in 
cement so that it is perfectly air-tight. The most valued 
present a dutiful son can make to his parent, is a fine cof- 
fin. It is kept in the house near the entrance, so that guests 



8o 



and visitors may examine and admire it. When the coffin 
is carried out for burial, from ten to twenty men are re- 
quired. Men and sometimes women follow in the proces- 
sion, dressed in coarse white clothes, for white is the color 
of mourning. The men braid their queues with white, and 
keep them so for several months, just as we wear a black 
band around our hat or arm. The women in the procession 
weep and wail. 

The Chinese usually bury near the' surface, and heap the 
earth over the grave until it looks like a mound. The rich 
people have the coffin placed upon a cement floor, and cov- 
ered with an arch of brick laid in cement. 

In less thickly settled districts, the poor bury their dead 
on hillsides which are bound to be lucky, and such spots 
look like a cemetery. Near Hankow is a burying ground 
about ten miles long and one mile wide. But graves are 
found almost everywhere throughout China. 



THE CHINESE AT HOME 

IN China the houses of the poor are almost without ex- 
ception mud hovels, without any attempt at comfort, 
and barely serving as shelter against the weather. A cow- 
shed in the United States would appear luxurious to millions 
of Chinese, for there are more poor people than we can 
imagine. The officials and wealthy people are, of course, 
better housed, although their ideas of comfort are quite 
different from ours. Thus, for instance, the Chinese are 
quite anxious that there should always be a draught in the 
house, a discomfort which we avoid as much as possible. 
" We like a current of air," say the Chinese, but that is 
only an excuse. The true reason is that they all believe 
the air to be occupied by spirits, good and bad, and, if a 
bad spirit enters their house, they wish to give it an op- 
portunity to leave. 

In the north the houses of most of the people are built 
of mud. There is so little wood that it is used only in the 
framework of the houses of the rich and of the high of- 
ficials. The walls are thick and curve slightly at the top. 
Most of these houses are of one story, having neither cellar 
nor basement. If they are composed of two, the upper one 
is used for recreation. The rooms on the ground floor serve 
for all the purposes of daily life. 

STO. OF CHINA — 6 8l 



82 



The general arrangement of a Chinese dwelHng of the 
better class is a series of rooms, separated and lighted by in- 
tervening courts. Upon entering, the door opens into a sort 
of waiting-room, with a servants' room on each side. Three 
doors, one large and two small, are opposite the entrance. The 
large one serves for the owner and for visitors whose rank or 
wealth entitles them to its use. One is reserved for the 
women and children, and visitors of less importance, and 
the third is used by the servants and humble retainers. 
These doors open upon a courtyard, which is entered by 
descending three steps. On each side is a paved gallery, in 
front of a room. One of these apartments is set apart for 
the use of the children, the other is used by the owner as 
a lounging-room, or to receive people whose rank does not 
demand ceremony. In country houses of the wealthy class 
the courts and apartments are broken by pretty gardens con- 
taining fountains and fish pools. 

Three steps, opposite those by which the courtyard is 
entered, lead to the drawing-room or reception room. This 
is flanked on both sides by several rooms, according the 
rank and fv^ealth of the owner, which are reserved for his 
use. Behind this room are the women's quarters, where 
no man, except the owner and his servants, may enter. But 
if a man can not visit these rooms, a woman can. Miss E. R. 
Scidmore, in her book on China, has given us a description 
of her visit to the Yamen, or official residence, of a high of- 
ficer whose Tai-tai (tie-tie), or- lady of the house, she was 
permitted to see. The party were carried through four gates 
and into as many courtyards, in the last of which they were 
received by the master of the mansion. The following is an 
extract from her account : 



S3 



" Then the ladies were led to the last dragon gate, which 
parted magically and brought us facing a solid screen. We 
rounded it, and saw the pretty tableau of the Tai-tai of 
the yamen and her seven young sons ranged in a row 
before the bright red curtain that concealed the door- 
way of her own boudoir or living-room. The Tai-tai 
stood on the tiniest of pointed slippers, and from their 




Reception Room in the Home of a Wealthy Chinese 

tips to her throat she was a mass of embroidered 
satins of brilliant, contrasting colors. Full trousers and 
skirts, each heavily embroidered, and coat upon coat, 
weighted the slender figure, and her blue-black hair was 
almost concealed with wing-like pieces, butterflies, pins, 



84 



and clasps of pearls. A string of finely cut ivory beads 
and phenix plastrons on the back and front of her outer 
coat declared her official quality, and the fine, pale-yellow 
face was alight with an expression of pleasure that lent 




Woman of the Wealthy Class 

emphasis to the cordial, soft-voiced greetings. An at- 
tendant lifted the screen curtain, and she led us into 
her lofty, stone-floored room, furnished with deep, square, 
carved chairs and round center table, and hung with the 



85 

gold-lettered red scrolls of holiday ornament. Tea was 
brought, and the Tai-tai, swaying on her stumps of feet, 
served each one with her own ivory chopsticks to fruits 
and cakes of many kinds." 

After partaking of these refreshments, her seven sons, 
ranging from about fourteen years to a baby in arms, were 
introduced, and then the Tai-tai's bedroom was thrown 
open for inspection. It had a stone floor, hand-carved 
chairs and tables along the walls, which were hung with 
vermilion scrolls, " a mirror and dressing-table before the 
window, and facing it a monumental carved canopy or 
alcove-bed. The bed was a hard marble shelf with many 
thick blankets folded at the farther side. Not a soft chair 
nor a floor-covering, not a common comfort, as we consider 
such things, was provided for this gentle, delicate, high-bred 
woman, despite the considerable wealth of the family." ' ^ 

The Tai-tai did not need much urging to remove the 
many superfluous garments which weighed her down, and 
then the wardrobe and trinkets were inspected. Ladies 
seem to have at least one common feeling in Asia and 
America ! Then a visitor, the wife of another official, called, 
and while the Tai-tai was discussing the strangers with her 
latest guest, time began to hang heavily upon the hands 
of the first callers, and they left. 

Even if the Chinese would learn nothing else from us, 
they could at least secure greater happiness by imitating 
our family life. But the Chinese will not change, and it is 
exactly his idea of the relation between man and wife 
which keeps him back from every reform. 

Social life, as we understand it, does not exist in China. 
^ China :The Long-Lived Empire ;'EXiz2. R. Scidmore ; The Century Co. 



There are rich men, but their number is very small com- 
pared to the population. Most of the Chinese are poor, and 
a very large number of them are so poor that if for half-a- 
day they are thrown out of work, they know that during 
that time there will be nothing for them to eat. They are 
up at daybreak, and work until dark, and the word Sabbath 
has no meaning for them. They have three holidays in the 
year, and their highest idea of happiness is that on those 
days, and on the occasion of a wedding or a funeral, 
they may have a small piece of meat to eat with their rice 
and cabbage. Everybody in China works, except those who 
absolutely can not. The beggars one sees on the bridges 
and in the crowded streets, beg only because they have no 
other means to keep from starving. 

It is, however, not only the poor man who must work 
without ceasing, but the highest officers, and even the 
Emperor himself, have very little time for leisure or rec- 
reation. A Cabinet Minister at Peking once gave an account 
of his daily duties as follows : He left his house every 
morning at two o'clock, because the Emperor received him 
in audience at three, and he was charged to remain at the 
palace until six. From six to nine he attended the meeting 
of the Privy Council, which advises the Emperor upon 
difficult questions. From nine until eleven he was at the 
War Department, and from eleven to two he sat as a 
member of the Supreme Court. From two to five or six he 
was at the Tsung-li Yamen, or Foreign Office. Such was his 
round of duties without intermission, and it evidently left 
him little time for pleasure or social life. 

Whatever social life there is contains not a sign of friend- 
ship or good feeling. To slap a Chinese on the back and 



87 

call him " a good old fellow," would make him your enemy 
for life. It would be a dire insult to ask him after the 
health of his wife. Wife and daughters must not be re- 
ferred to by the slightest word. 

Not so many years ago, the Chinese Government sent a 
number of boys to the United States to be educated. One 
day one of the boys, while walking with an American girl, 
met the carriage of the old Chinese who was in charge of 
the party. The young man took off his hat to salute. Ac- 
cording to Chinese good manners this was a direct insult, but 
it was a still greater offense for him to be walking with a 
young lady. The members of the Chinese Government were 
terribly shocked when they heard of this apparently innocent 
matter, and it was one of the reasons why all these young 
men were ordered to return to China. 

When a Chinese gentleman receives a caller, every word 
he speaks and every motion he makes is prescribed by law. 
Foreigners know nothing of this law, and, beyond the com- 
mon rules of what we consider good-breeding, do not at- 
tempt to rival the politeness of the Chinese. Many Chinese 
who do not understand this consider foreigners very impolite, 
and consequently dislike them. 

It sometimes happens that the Chinese meet their foreign 
acquaintances at dinner. If the dinner is given by a Chinese, 
the foreigner feels clumsy and awkward in handling the 
chopsticks. But when a Chinese is entertained by a for- 
eigner, he does 'not allow himself to be inconvenienced by 
the knife and fork; he simply puts them down and helps 
himself with his fingers. He considers the foreigners very 
stupid not to learn how to use chopsticks, as every civilized 
man has done since the days of Confucius. 



A CHINESE CITY 



T 



HE first thing that strikes a foreigner in a Chinese city 
is the streets. They are exceedingly narrow, are paved 




A Street in Peking 

with stone slabs, and there are no sidewalks. These slabs 
are wonderfully irregul'ar, because the Chinese think it un- 
lucky to put them down evenly. The houses are packed 



as closely as possible, and are generally of one story. There 
are no public squares, gardens or parks. The only open 
spaces are those found in front of the temples. If a fire 
breaks out, there is no means of stopping it, for such a thing 
as a fire department does not exist. The owners, however, 
do not wait for the ground to get cool before they are build- 
ing again. 

Signboards and advertisements are seen everywhere. The 
houses are low, but there are signboards eight or ten feet 
long. The Chinese do not put them up lengthwise, as we 
do, but hang them down; because they do not write as we 
do, from left to right, but from top to bottom. Every 
store has a name, generally a high-sounding one. Here is 
a coal dealer. Those two characters are the name of his 
store. They signify in plain English : Heavenly Orna- 
ment, That does not mean that coal is a heavenly orna- 
ment, but that the owner is modest enough to think he is. 
Across the street is an undertaker whose sign reads : United 
and Prosperous. That fur merchant yonder seems to be 
satisfied with himself, for he calls his place of business : 
Virtuous and Abundant. Perhaps the Chinese are not often 
praised by other people, so they praise themselves. 

The streets are too narrow and the roads too uneven 
for carriages. There is no opportunity to take a ride, but 
when we are tired of walking, we can hire a sedan chair. 
The officers and wealthy Chinese have handsome ones, but 
those for hire at the street corners are very shabby. Most 
of them are made of bamboo, and look as if they would 
break down if a man of ordinary weight were to sit in them. 
It seems almost impossible for two clairs to pass in these 
crowded, narrow streets. But they do, and you can hear 



90 



the coolies shout : " Look out for your backs ! Look out 
for your backs!". There are also queer-looking wheel- 
barrows that are made so that two people can sit on them 
and be trundled along by a coolie. They are all busy, these 
Chinese. You do not see any ladies out shopping, nor gen- 
tlemen walking in the streets. But you see hundreds of 
coolies, some carrying baskets of rice, others buckets slung 
from the ends of a pole, and filled with river or well water, 




A Passenger Wheelbarrow 

which they sell to their customers. Water pipes and faucets 
are luxuries which these people do not possess. 

Here is another traveler in the shape of a water buffalo, 
plodding his way along, guided by his driver, a small 
boy, proudly sitting upon the animal's back. There is a 
barber, busily employed in cutting the hairs from a cus- 



91 



tomer's ear. Behind the buffalo comes- a procession. First 
two Yamen runners, messengers of a high official, armed 
with whips. They are followed by some fourteen-year-old 
boys carrying large painted boards, inscribed with the char- 
acters : "Stand aside," and "Respectful silence, please!" 




A Chinese Barber 

Then follows the handsomely decorated sedan chair of the 
Mandarin (mahn-dah-reen), in his fine robes of satin. His 
umbrella-bearer comes right behind the chair. 

The streets are narrow enough, yet at both sides are stalls 
or booths occupied by traveling tradesmen. In one of these 
a tinker is busy mending some old iron ware ; next to him 
is a physician who seems to be recommending his medicine 
to the gaping crowd around him. Opposite him, in quiet 



92 

contemplation of his wealth, sits the money-changer. His 
capital does not seem to exceed five dollars, but probably 
he does not care to display any more. Some of these poor- 
looking money-changers would astonish us considerably if 
they could be made to tell us of the sums of money they 
control. 

Would you like to try a Chinese luncheon ? The smell 
is enough for you, you think ? Still, we may as well take 
a look. I am sure that you will not fincj any puppies, cats, 
rats, snakes, or worms in this shop, and I do not think that 
the Chinese are very fond of them themselves. Here are 
sausage balls smelling of garlic, minced beef and celery, 
slices of fried fish, dumplings of fat pork sprinkled with 
sugar, and other Chinese delicacies. 

There is a man in a loose yellow robe who is a begging 
priest ; he has no queue, for his head is shaved. As he 
walks along he strikes a wooden drum fastened around his 
waist. It makes a dull and hollow sound. Such drums 
are used in the temples while the priests are chanting their 
prayers. The Chinese are taught that if they give alms 
to these begging priests it will help them after they are 
dead. What they give is dropped in the small wallet or 
satchel which you see strapped on the back of the priest. 

Beggars ! They are as thick in China as flies in June. 
Here is a whole string of blind men, moving along in Indian 
file, and holding by each other's coats. They go from one 
store to another, and every storekeeper gives them some- 
thing. But sometimes they will pass one or more stores 
without stopping. The owners of these stores give every 
year a certain sum of money to the King of the Beggars 
to secure them from daily annoyance. 



93 

Beggars suffering from every disease are squatting or 
crawling about on the street corners. Their whining cries 
for alms are scarcely less distressing than their horrid 
appearance. When they notice a well-dressed Chinese ap- 
proaching, they kow-tow, that is, they knock their fore- 
heads against the hard stones of the street. Some of them 
wear a thick leather pad around the head. 

Here is the stall of a fortune teller. Let us watch him. 
That young man is telling him that he is thinking of leav- 
ing home for a while, and wants to know if his journey 
will be lucky or not. The fortune teller takes a cage with 
several birds in it, and, picking up a few grains of rice, calls 
one of the birds. Then he shuffles what looks like a pack of 
cards — papers with answers to the most common questions 
written on them. The bird is told to pick out a card. He pecks 
at one of them, and the fortune teller reads what is written 
on it. " The journey will not be lucky at this time. You 
will lose money by it. Stay at home and wait for a lucky 
day ! " The young man pays his fee and goes away. You 
may be sure that he will postpone his journey. 

Let us look in at this florist's shop. Here he comes him- 
self, with several shallow bamboo baskets filled with fine 
plants. In early spring he sells the sweet-scented flowers 
of the lamei (lah-may) and the pretty pink blossoms of the 
almond. Later on in the season, he has azaleas, roses, pinks, 
and peonies, pomegranates, and water lilies. In early fall 
the brilliant coxcombs, with their large flowers, are the 
favorite. The Chinese are fond of the chrysanthemum, the 
passion flower, and the aster. The sweet scent of the Kwei- 
wha (kwy-whah), or fragrant olive, is very pleasant, 
especially among the vile odors of a Chinese street. The 



94 

flower pots which you see in the store, some of which are 
very handsome, come from the famous potteries of Chin- 
teh-tsin (chin tay-tsin), near Po-yang (poh-yahng) Lake. 

Wealthy Chinese engage florists by the year to bring them 
fresh flowers. Thus you may see in their courtyards the 
narcissus and cameflia in the middle of winter. 

This open space shows that we are near a Yamen, or 
judge's office. That gate is the entrance. Those odd- 
looking stone animals guarding it are supposed to be lions. 
Do you notice how timidly the children look at them ? 
They believe that they are stone lions only in the daytime 
but that at night they come to life and roam through the 
streets of the city. 

Here is a man walking along with two large and deep 
bamboo baskets slung from a pole, and a little flag with the 
characters: "Respect printed paper!" They seem to ex- 
pect him in this street, for doors open and menservants 
come out with waste-paper baskets, which they empty into 
his. What do you think he will do with these scraps ? He 
is paid by a society to gather them, and they are sent to a 
temple where there is a furnace to burn them. The Chinese 
have the greatest respect for learning, and think it is a 
shame to treat written paper with disrespect. They can not 
understand how we can step upon it in the street, or use 
it to wrap parcels in. They think that we can not have 
any good writers, because we care so little for written or 
printed paper. 

Now let us go into this handsome crockery store. After 
we have entered, a servant comes and offers us a cup of 
tea. Those vases, some of them five feet high and painted 
in delicate colors, are very expensive. You may take your 



95 

choice of wine pots, teacups, and articles which we use, 
such as tea sets with handles to the cups, teapots, plates, 
dishes, etc. Offer the shopman about one-half of the price 
he asks. Never fear ! he will take it, and make a good 
profit. He would be greatly disappointed if you were to 
pay him his own price, for then he would blame himself 
for not asking twice as much. A Chinese storekeeper loves 
to bargain. 

Here is a tea-house. This is the place where the Chinese 
meet their friends. They drink tea, and nibble at peanuts 
and melon seeds, and talk over the news of the day. They 
will sit here for hours, and when they leave and pay the 
bill, it is about — one penny ! 

What are the names of the streets we have passed? I 
will tell you. We began with that of Perpetual Comfort, 
then we passed through Filial Piety Lane, and turned into 
the Court of Eternal Harmony, where we saw the Judge's 
Yamen. Afterwards we went through New Street, Horse- 
tail Lane, Thread-and-Needle Alley, the Street of Heavenly 
Treasures, and now we are in the Chia Family Street, which 
leads to the gate. This gate is closely covered with advertise- 
ments. There are notices of Buddhist celebrations, rewards 
for the finding of people who have disappeared, advertise- 
ments of patent medicines, kerosene oil, and other goods, just 
as we see in our cities. But we see something here that we 
have never seen at home, — the heads of criminals, hanging 
in small bamboo cages, just beyond the heavy stone gateways. 
Looking at them we remember that we are in China. 



WHAT BOYS LEARN AT SCHOOL 

WHEN a boy is six years old his father thinks that it 
is time to send him to school. As soon as he has 
made up his mind, he goes to consult a fortune teller who 




Chinese Children 

will find him a lucky day. When that important question is 
decided, and the day arrives, the little fellow goes with his 

96 



97 



father to the school selected. There are no public schools 
in China, but a great number of private ones, kept by men 
who have passed one or two examinations, but who could 
not succeed in the third. 

The little boy looks neat and tidy. His hair has been 
shaved from his forehead, and the rest plaited into a long 
queue or pien-tsz' (peentse), as he calls it, which hangs 
almost dov/n to his heels. If it is in the summer season, he 
wears small baggy trousers of grass-cloth, and a loose 
jacket of the same material, or of cotton, and he is bare- 
headed. But if it is winter, he has three, four, or five 
jackets, one over the other, some of them padded with cot- 
ton. He has a skull cap of black or blue silk on his head, 
with a red tassel of silk threads falling down behind, and 
a little scarlet twist at the top. His shoes have thick, white 
soles, often with embroidered toes. Sometimes he has a 
little purse in his belt, but if there is any money in it, it is 
only a few copper pieces. He has no pockets ; if he wants 
to carry or hide something, he uses his sleeves. They are 
so large and long that they will hold many things Chinese 
boys like. 

At last he comes to the schoolhouse and enters the school- 
room with his father. Here there is a tablet with the name of 
Confucius inscribed upon it. The little fellow kneels before 
this tablet, and burns incense. When he has performed this 
duty, he is introduced to the teacher, to whom he makes 
some small presents, which he has brought with him. Then 
he lifts his little almond eyes and looks around him. 

He sees the small schoolroom with a number of little 
desks with high stools behind them, most of which belong 
to the parents of the boys. Each little desk has an ink- 

STO. OF CHINA — 7 



98 



stone upon which the boys rub the cake of Chinese ink, — 
we call it Indian ink, after dipping it in a little water. 
This is the inkstand, and the pen is a little brush with a 
holder in it, looking like our camel's-hair painting brush. 
When he begins to write he holds it straight in his hand, so 
that the holder points to the ceiling. 



i i'h 


^%\ 


' i- 


^. ' 


A 


-^ 


". ^« . 


/» , 


Iv^- , 


■i, 


- j> 


J 1 
1 



11 ; 




A Chinese School 



The first years at school are spent in learning to recite 
by heart the sound of the characters, or picture-words, 
without knowing anything of their meaning. Every day 
the teacher gives the child the sound of several characters. 
When the boy thinks that he knows them, the teacher takes 
the book away, the boy turns round with his back to the 



99 

teacher, and shouts the sounds from memory in the order 
in which they are given in the book. 

The Chinese language is very difficult to learn. It has 
no alphabet, but there are two hundred and fourteen prim- 
itive words, from which all the others are tlerived. For 
instance : This character d represents the word sun. If 
it written above a line standing for the horizon, it means 
morning; thus || morning. Here is the character for tree: 
^ When two of these characters are placed together, 
thus : jj^ it means forest. 

Here are the characters for mouth l^and f^ door. A 
mouth in a door, like this ^M means : to ask. 

Even when a person has learned all these characters, he 
does not know Chinese by any means. 

It would be difficult for a foreigner, coming to the United 
States, and not perfectly familiar with our language, to 
understand such an expression as : " Will you. please pare 
a pair of pears for me ?" because the sounds are so much 
alike : pare, pair and pear all have a different meaning. 
In Chinese there are words with exactly the same sound 
which have ten, twelve, and sometimes eighteen different 
meanings. For instance, the one word die, pronounced in ex- 
actly the same tone of voice,, may mean : famine, fowl, 
foot, print, foimdation, hindrance, sieve, small table, to 
wind silk, to make fun of, to crowd, to draw water, to 
strike, to examine, etc. And if it is pronounced with a 

LofC. 



100 



breathing before it it has a dozen other meanings in ad- 
dition to those already mentioned. 

When foreigners in China, who think they know some- 
thing of the language, begin to speak it, their mistakes are 
sometimes very funny. One man amazes his servant by tell- 
ing him that he wishes him to purchase half-a-dozen wives, 
although he thinks he is ordering him to buy half-a-dozen 
fowls. Another thinks that he is calling for a cake, but 
his servant brings him a bottle; he wishes to talk about 
leather, but all the time he is speaking about his nose. 
Another man grows very angry because his servant does 
not bring him his hat, although he really has been asking 
for the cat. " Bring me a biscuit," a gentleman said, or 
thought he said. His servant looked helplessly at him, for 
what he really said was : " Bring me a soldier." 

But we want to know what the boys learn at school. Let 
us stand by this boy, who is eight or nine years old, and 
hear what he is shouting. Every boy in the schoolroom 
shouts out the characters he is learning at the top of his 
voice. When he begins a new sentence, the teacher repeats 
it, and tha boys, holding their books in their hands, and 
with a swinging motion of their bodies, repeat his pronun- 
ciation. They then return to their seats, and learn the 
words by heart. The noise in a large schoolroom may be 
imagined. 

The first book the boy studies is the San-Tss'-King 
( sahn-ts'-king) , or Learning by Three Words, because each 
line has that number of characters. The first sentence reads : 
" Men at their births are by nature good at bottom." An- 
other sentence, which Chinese boys learn very thoroughly 
without enjoying it very much, says ; *' To educate without 



lOI 



severity shows a teacher's laziness." Do you see that bam- 
boo cane, within reach of the teacher's hand ? He uses it 
frequently and promptly, as every boy knows. 

The boys learn from their books that there are three 
great powers : heaven, earth, and man ; that there are three 
lights : the sun, moon, and stars ; and that there are six 
kinds of grain used for food : rice, millet, pulse, wheat, rye, 
and barley. After a good deal more of this, they begin 
to study Chinese history, and then they are promoted to 
the stories told of wonderfully wise boys and men. 

Here is one about Lao Lai-tsz' (lah-oh lie-tsz') : At the 
time when David was King in Jerusalem, that is about three 
thousand years ago, this Lao Lai-tsz' was seventy years 
old. His parents, however, were still living. For this 
reason he grew angry if his neighbors spoke to him as 
Honorable or Venerable, words which are always used when 
a man has passed the age of sixty, because he thought that 
if his parents heard him addressed in this manner they 
would remember how very old they were, and it might 
make them feel sad. He wished to make them very happy, 
and so bought the very best food in the market for them, 
and thought of them day and night. 

Sometimes he would dress himself in a coat of the same 
pattern and color as he had worn when a boy. Then he 
would come into his parents' room, and jump and play with 
the toys which he had had in his childhood. At other times 
he would bring a pail of water from the well. He would 
take it to the guest room and pretend to stumble, and begin 
to cry. Then he would run up to his father or mother, and, 
like a little child, ask to be petted and soothed. He did 
all this so that the old people might, for a time, forget their 



102 



great age in caring for their little boy, and oiice again 
imagine themselves young. 

Here is the story of Koh Kii (koh kee). At the time when 
emperors of the Han family reigned over China (b. c. 202- 
A. D. 221) there lived a man named Koh Kii. He lived with 
his wife, his son, a fine boy three years of age, and his 
mother who was very old. They were very happy, for Koh 
Kii worked hard and supported his family. 

But trouble came. There was no rain. The harvest failed, 
there was no work, and there was no food. The Chinese 
do not, as we would do, move to another place to find work. 
They would not think of such a thing, for who would 
worship at the ancestral graves ? So long as there was 
any food in the house, the old grandmother and the little 
son ate together. At last the food began to give out ; they 
all grew thin, and their strength began to fail. 

One day Koh Kii took his spade, and called to his wife to 
follow him with the child. He hurried on beyond the bam- 
boo fence around their little homestead, and then stopped. 
When his wife and child came to where he was standing, 
he said to iier : " Wife, we are now so poor that I can no 
longer support my mother, and the child takes from the little 
food we can give her, so that both are growing weaker be- 
fore our eyes. We may have another child, but when a 
mother is dead, she can never return. The child must die ; 
then my mother's life may be saved, and perhaps we may 
manage to live until a better time comes." 

The poor woman could not speak. She knew that her 
husband was master ; but she held the child close to her 
heart, while Koh Kii was digging the grave. Suddenly the 
spade seemed to strike against some hard substance. The 



103 



man bent down, and scarcely believed his eyes when he 
pulled out a pot full of gold. But the most wonderful part 
of it was that written on the pot were the words : " Heaven 
gives this treasure to the dutiful son Koh Ku. The officers 
must not take it away from him, and the neighbors must 
not ask for a share." 

Another one of these stories is about Wang Liang (wahng 
leeahng) : About fifteen hundred years ago, at the time 
when the Emperors of China were of the Chin family (a. d. 
386-534), there lived a boy whose name was Wang Liang. 
He was only a child when his mother died, and soon 
after her death his father married another woman named 
Chu. The boy's stepmother took a strong dislike to Wang; 
she scolded him continually, and complained of him to his 
father. Wang did not like this at all. He did not mind 
so much being scolded and punished, but he did not want to 
have his father annoyed. 

It was in winter, and snow was falling heavily. Icicles 
were hanging from the eaves," and pond, lake, and river 
were covered with ice. Mrs. Chu had been scolding and 
complaining as usual, and at last she threw herself into 
one of the stiff-backed chairs, and said : " Oh ! dear, I wish 
I had a dish of fresh carp !" 

There were plenty of carp in the lake near by, but who 
was going to catch them under that thick sheet of ice ? 
Wang thought that he could do it. He left the house and 
went to the lake, where he threw himself upon the ice, hoping 
that the heat of his body would melt it. Heaven smiles 
upon such dutiful conduct. The ice did melt, and two 
beautiful carp leaped out. Wang caught them, and ran 
home. 



104 



When he came into the room where his stepmother was 
half asleep, he knelt before her, and offered her the fish. 

Here the story ends. I hope that Mrs. Chu 
was a little kinder to the boy thereafter, and 
that Wang did not catch cold from his wet- 
ting. 

Besides reading and writing, Chinese boys 

learn arithmetic. They use no slate, but a 

swanpan or abacus. This is a case with wires 

strung across it. On the wires are strung five 

The Swanpan movable balls, and beyond a dividing slat two 

more balls. The five balls are units, and the two balls make 

a ten. Of geography, grammar, and other studies they 

learn nothing. 




GAMES AND HOLIDAYS 



CHINESE boys are, as a rule, more quiet than our boys, 
but they are quite as fond of play and fun. When a 
new boy enters a school, it is .not at all unusual for some 
other boy, who ought to know better, to take the newcomer's 
nicely-plaited queue and slyly tie it to that of another boy, 
all the time shouting his lessons, so that the teacher will 



not notice what he is doing. 




A Chinese Kite 



Chinese boys know noth- 
ing of football, baseball, or 
any such games. If you were 
to ask one of them what 
game he likes best, he would 
probably answer : kite-fly- 
ing. That is a game which 
their fathers and even grand- 
fathers like. The Chinese 
know how to make kites to 
perfection. Some of them 
look like birds or butterflies, 
with wings cleaving the air ; 
others are in the shape of 
animals, and many are like 
dragons. Sometimes a tiny 
lighted lantern is fastened to 



105 



io6 



the tail of a kite, which, when it rises, looks like a little 
star. Sometimes a number of kites, in the form of birds, 
are fastened by short strings to the principal cord. When 
they rise in the air they look like a flock of birds flying 
aroimd one center. 

Boys begin to fly their kites on the ninth day of the 
ninth month. If you ask them why they do so, they will 
tell you that once upon a time a man was warned that he 
would have a great misfortune on a certain day. The man 
decided to prevent it by taking all the members of his house- 
hold into the mountains for that day. He did so, and when 
he returned in the evening, he found that all his domestic 
animals were dead. This was on the ninth day of the ninth 
month, so, the people think, it must be an unlucky day. 
Therefore, they go out and fly kites to spend the time. 

From the tenth to the fifteen of the first month most of 
the stores are closed, and nobody does any business except 
the men who sell lanterns. There are any number of ped- 
dlers in the streets, with their lanterns hung from long bam- 
boo poles, and they do a brisk trade. 

You have seen these Chinese lanterns with their light 
bamboo frame covered with bright colored paper. They 
are of all shapes. Most of them are made in the shape of 
a ball, fixed to the end of a stick, but there are some in 
the form of rabbits, horses, fowls, shrimps, crabs, beetles, 
and some very handsome ones imitate the lotus or other 
flowers. Wealthy people have their lanterns made of gauze 
or silk, and the most expensive ones are ornamented with 
small figures, to whose heads, legs, or arms fine wires are 
attached. When the lantern is lighted the heated air makes 
these wires revolve, and the figures on the outside begin to 



lo; 



move, and you see an old man fishing, or a ferryman row- 
ing across a stream, or two Chinese gentlemen wishing each 
other a Happy New Year. 

The Chinese have a feathered ball, very much like our 
shuttlecock. They make it rebound on the thick sole of 
the shoe or on- the instep of the foot. They can do it some- 
times two or three hundred times without missing once. 
"When they bounce the ball up and down with the hand 
they call it playing Ta chiau (tali chee-ow). 

"When Chinese boys play with tops they call it Ta teh-lo 
(tah tey-loh). Their tops are made of bamboo, with a 
piece of wood going through it, and a hole cut in the side, 
which causes a humming sound when it spins. Blind man's 
buff is called by them " Hiding from the cat." 

In early spring they have a ceremony called " Turning 
the Dragon." The dragon, sometimes thirty or forty feet 
long, is made of a large number of lanterns fastened together 
and covered with colored paper and cloth. Being made of 
lanterns it has so many joints that it can be easily turned 
and twisted by the carriers. ■ Long poles are fastened to a 
number of the joints, and in the evening it is lighted up. 
As the big dragon, with wide-open mouth, is carried through 
the streets, turning and twisting in every direction, and rear- 
ing its horrible head, it is followed by a large crowd of 
people. Gongs are beaten, crackers are fired, and there is 
yelling and shouting. The Chinese think that this dragon 
will frighten the evil spirits and drive sickness away. 

The greatest holiday is China is New Year's Day, between 
the middle of January and that of February, It is not on 
the first of January, as with us, because the Chinese month 
begins with every new moon. 



io8 



Most of the Chinese would not dream of going to bed on 
New Year's Eve. They beheve that if they watch for the 
dawn of New Year's morning for several years in succes- 
sion, they will surely have long life. The children also sit 
up " to round the year " as they call it. Everybody, young 
and old, burns firecrackers. 

Several days before the New Year the people begin making 
preparations. The principal streets are filled with booths 
where articles of various kinds are sold. Houses are cleaned, 
new charms and scrolls are bought, and new clothes are 
rented or purchased, while debts are paid before the old year 
ends. If the whole debt can not be paid in full, the creditor 
is at least given something on account. Stocks of provisions 
are laid in, for the stores will be closed perhaps for five or 
six days. In former years it was customary to close for 
fourteen days, but that is not done now. 

As soon as midnight is passed, the Chinese worship at the 
ancestral tablet. Then the family go out by the front door, 
while the servants or women lift up the lanterns or lamps 
to light them. They then bow down toward a part of the 
heavens which the almanac has indicated as the proper place. 
They call this worshiping the heaven and earth, and think 
that in doing so they will be receiving the spirit of Good 
Luck which is supposed to come out of that quarter. 

At this moment all the Chinese are terribly anxious, for 
they believe that the first person they see or the first word 
they hear will influence, for good or ill, their fortune in 
the coming year. If the first person they see coming along 
should be a priest with his shaven head, what a terrible mis- 
fortune that would foretell ! They tremble as they listen 
to hear the first word. If it should refer to fire, loss of of- 



I09 



fice, failure in business, sickness, or death, they would enter 
with a heavy heart upon the new year. But if the first word 
they hear is one of joy or prosperity, how glad they are, for 
that means a lucky year for them. 

When the morning breaks, the streets are found to be 
covered with crimson paper of burnt-out crackers. These 
are fired to frighten evil spirits. The beggars are about, 
and take in a rich harvest, for no Chinese would refuse 
alms, and thus- run the risk of beginning the new year badly. 

Upon almost every front door you will see new men shin 
(main shin), or door spirits. They are cheaply colored pic- 
tures of two generals. It is said that once upon a time the 
Emperor had a dream that evil spirits would enter his 
palace. He ordered two of his bravest generals to guard 
the gate, and the spirits were so frightened by them that 
they were afraid to enter. When those two brave generals 
died, it was thought that the evil spirits would be as much 
afraid of their pictures as they had been of the men them- 
selves, and that is why they are used to guard the house. 

There are other cheap ornaments about the doors, houses, 
and windows, but they have all the same purpose, namely, to 
drive away evil spirits and to invite such as are good. 

When a Chinese gentleman meets a friend on New Year's 
morning, he clasps his own hands, keeping them well within 
his long sleeves, moves them up and down before him, bows 
low, and says several times " Kung-she, Kung-she," (koong- 
shay) which, I suppose, means about the same as our 
" Happy New Year." 

" Receiving the Spring " is another holiday, although it 
is not observed by everybody. The " Feast of the Dragon 
Boats " is sometimes spoken of as the Children's Festival, 



no 



It is chiefly the racing of so-called dragon boats, which are 
long and narrow, and carry from twenty to thirty men. The 
waist and stern are painted, and the bow is shaped like the 
head of a dragon with gaping jaws. A boy or man sits 
upon the dragon's neck and directs the oarsmen by means 
of a flag which he. holds in his hand. 

Crowds of people upon the river banks watch the races, 
and accidents from collision are frequent. The winning 
crew receives prizes. 

This holiday is about 2,400 years old, and this is the 
story they tell about it : There once lived a very wise Min- 
ister of State named Ken Yuen (can yooen), who urged 
his Emperor to introduce reforms. But the Emperor, who 
did not wish to help the people, grew angry and dismissed 
him. Ken Yuen could not survive this disgrace, so he threw 
himself into the river and was drowned. Some fishermen 
who saw him disappear searched for his body, but it could 
not be found. Some time after this Ken Yuen's spirit ap- 
peared and complained that the offering-s which the people 
brought him were always stolen by a big reptile. So these 
dragon bq^ts are made to frighten away the monster. 

In the eighth month of the year comes the " Festival of 
the Moon," when the people, and especially the children, eat 
moon cakes, which are shaped like the moon, and painted 
with spots of bright color. The Chinese tell this story 
about it : 

One evening the Emperor Ming Wong was walking in 
his garden with some of his councilors. Suddenly the 
Emperor's son asked if the moon was inhabited or not. 
"Would you like to see for yourself?" asked the tutor of 
the young prince, and, of course, the boy said yes. The 



Ill 




tutor threw his staff into the air, and it was at once changed 
into a bridge, over which he and his pupil walked to the 
moon. They found it inhabited by beautiful women, living 
in splendid palaces surrounded by charming gardens. The 

prince wished to remain, 
but the tutor told him 
that it was time to go 
home. When they were 
about half-way over the 
bridge, the tutor asked 
the prince to play upon 
the lute which he car- 
ried with him. This the 
prince did. They hap- 
pened then to be directly 
over the city of Nanking, 
and the people could be 
seen rushing to the roofs 
of their houses. " Give 
them what money you 
have in your pockets," 
said the tutor. The prince 
did so, and he and the 
tutor reached home in 
safety. The next day the 
prince thought that his trip to the moon must have been a 
dream, but very soon a letter came from the Governor of 
Nanking saying that on the fifteenth of the eighth month, 
heavenly music was heard, and a shower of money fell from 
the sky. Then the prince knew that his journey to the moon 
was true, and so the day was made into a holiday. 




A Cake Seller 



III. PAST AND PRESENT 



THE DELUGE AS TOLD BY THE CHINESE 

THERE is no distinct account of the creation in Chinese 
history, bnt the Shu-King (shoo-king), a history writ- 
ten so long ago that nobody is able to say exactly when, tells 
of events which happened before the Deluge. A number of 
people who, after learning the Chinese language, studied 
and translated this old book, were surprised to find that 
there is a difference of only fifty-seven years between the 
date usually assigned to the Deluge told of in the Bible and 
that given in the Chinese account. But the Bible says Hjat 
only Noah and his family were saved ; and the Shu-King has 
it that a great many people escaped. The story is somewhat 
as follow^: 

At the time of the flood the Emperor of China was named 
Yau (yah-oo). After the waters had gone down somewhat, 
he called a meeting of his ministers, and said to them : 

"A great many people are ruined because of this flood. 
What can we do to help them ?'' 

The ministers answered: "Ask Kwan !" 

" No," replied the Emperor, " I can not do so. Why, 
that man would not obey my orders, but would do just as 
he pleased." 



113 



The ministers shook their heads, and looked wise; but 
as they did not know any better advice to give, they all re- 
peated : 

" Try him. Perhaps he may succeed." 

So Emperor Yau gave his consent and told his ministers 
to engage Kwan, but to be careful not to let him have 
things all his own way. Kwan worked hard for nine years, 
but did not succeed in bringing help to the people. The 
Emperor grew tired of waiting, and poor Kwan was put 
to death. 

Emperor Yau thereupon sent for Kwan's son, Yu, and 
asked him if he would try and do the work. Yu agreed, 
and worked so hard that he really succeeded. He drained 
the land, and so restored order in the empire. 

■ When the Emperor heard of it, he sent for Yu, who, of 
course, went as quickly as he could. When he came before 
him the Emperor began with a joke, perhaps to make Yu 
feel at ease : 

" You need not stand so far off!" he said to Yu. " By 
your looks I should not be surprised if 3^ou had something 
interesting to tell me." 

" Well, Your Majest}^" replied Yu, " perhaps I have. 
The flood was very high, and the water was well up on 
the high mountains, and the foothills could not be seen at 
all. Whenever the people made a misstep, slipped, and 
fell in, they were wet, and lost their temper. (The Chinese 
never did like cold water or a bath !) When I could see 
the way, I took a boat ; but the worst of it was when I had 
to climb on foot, on account of the brush. It was lucky that 
I had spiked shoes. 

" I traveled from one mountain to another, and made the 

STO. OF CHINA — 8 



114 



people cut down trees. Sometimes I had a shot at some 
game, and I let them eat the meat raw, for there was no 
way to make a fire to cook it. 

" Then, to make a passage for the water, I had pipes 
laid, and cut nine ditches. As soon as the ground was dry, 
I set the people plowing and sowing, and then they had 
an opportunity to cook their food. Sometimes a man would 
come and ask me for something, but when I found that 
he had anything that he did not need, I told him to trade 
it. So now, everybody is happy." 

Yau was well pleased, and was going to speak, when he 
saw that Yu had not quite finished ; so he smiled at him to 
go on. 

"With Your Majesty's permission," said bold Yu, ''yon, 
too, have some work to do. Think how much mightier an 
Emperor you would be, if you woidd look after your min- 
isters, and see what schemes they have to defraud the 
people. Then the people would believe in you ; they would 
admire and praise you." 

Many emperors of whom we have heard would not have 
liked this sort of speech, but Yau was not a bad-hearted 
man. I suspect that is why the Chinese are so proud of 
him. He showed that he was not offended, by calling a 
meeting of his ministers. When they had arrived, and the 
roll had been called, he said : 

" Gentlemen, do you know that you ought to be my legs 
and arms, my eyes and ears ? Attend to your duties, and 
help the people if they need any assistance. The first thing 
I want you to do is to advertise in every paper, that I am 
the Master. When you have done that, send for an artist, 
for I wish to have groups painted of the sun, moon, and 



115 

stars ; of the mountains, the dragons, the insects, and the 
flowers. Also, I need some new clothes. I do not care 
for gaudy colors ; some embroidered cloth will do, with a 
neat mixture of blue, red, yellow, white and black. Then 
the courts of law must be attended to, and don't forget the 
band, for I am fond of music. Pay the greatest attention to 
all these things. If I make a mistake, let me know it. Don't 
smile before my face, and blame me when my back is 
turned ! Now about the common people ; you know what 
blockheads they are. If they do not attend to their business, 
give them a gentle reminder. Use the lash occasionally, 
and make them learn their lessons, and see to it that they 
are kept at work. If any come and ask for work, let them 
have it; but if they are idle, stir them up." 

When Yu heard of this speech to the ministers he was 
pleased, and said to the monarch : 

" The Emperor is like a great light. Every man of this 
country may see it if he is not blind, and even the people 
near the Big Pond. But Your Majesty should hear what 
your ministers have to say. If you wish to promote them, 
let them show by their language that they are fit for the 
position, and set a good example to the people. Have 
plenty of mounted police, and who will dare to raise any 
objection? Whenever a new law is made, have it published 
at once, and keep a record of the criminals." 

Yau died at the ripe age of one hundred and two. He 
did not leave the empire to his son, but to a stranger named 
Shun (shoon). 

Before I go on with my translation of the Shu-King, I 
shall tell you something about this Shun. His mother died 
when he was very young, and after some time his father 



ii6 



married again. Then the boy had a hard time of it. When 
his stepmother had children, his father loved them better 
than he did his oldest son. He began to beat poor Shun, 
and at last tried to kill him. In China a father can do 
what he pleases. His children must not only obey him, but 
dare not even talk to him. This is called filial piety, and 
the child who neglects it is severely punished. So Shun 
suffered in silence, more so because his stepmother was sly 
and his younger brother proud. But he bore it all, and 
never once showed how much it hurt him. He was always 
obedient to his parents, and kind to his brother. He made 
up his mind to be respectful and quiet, and at last his 
parents began to love him, and then he had his reward. But 
the neighbors had noticed all this, and they admired him so 
much for his conduct, that they would have elected him to 
any position, if only they had known what elections were. 
This is what the Shu-King says of him: 
" If you study the old Emperor Shun you will find that 
he was like the emperors before him. He was wise, polite, 
kind, true, and honest. When the Emperor Yau first heard 
about him, he sent for him, and put him into office, so that 
he might see for himself. When he found Shun always the 
same, — kind, just, polite, wise and honest, — he made him 
a general superintendent, and afterwards promoted him to 
be Master of Ceremonies, whose duty it was to introduce 
all the nobles who came to pay their respects to the Em- 
peror, Once he was ordered to explore the deepest parts 
of a vast forest, and to find out what caused a flood. He 
had gone about this work, when a terrible thunder and rain 
storm overtook him, so that people were afraid that he 
might be killed. But he showed how brave he was, by keep- 



ii; 



ing cool, and so escaped from dangers which would have 
overwhelmed other men. Therefore, the Emperor could 
not help admiring Shun, and thought of how to reward 
him." 

You must know that in China the Emperor need not leave 
the throne to his oldest son, as in Europe. He is supposed 
to stud}- all his sons, and to make the best one his heir. 
In former times he could appoint anyone, and this is ex- 
actly what Yau did. Not only did he make Shun his heir, 
but he insisted that he should be Emperor from that day. 
Shun obeyed, and \yas another ruler of whom the Chinese 
are very proud. Yu, v/ho restored order after the Deluge, 
was made prime minister. After reigning thirty-three years. 
Shun resigned and made Yu his successor. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA 

WHEN we study the history of England, we read of 
rulers of the House of Plantaganet, of the House of 
Tudor, etc. Such a family of kings is called a dynasty. In 
many accounts of European nations only the history of the 
dynasty, or of the reigning family, is given, and little or no 
attention is paid to the history of the people. It is the same 
with the history of China. In their long, long records of the 
past they mention twenty-six dynasties. 

The writers of Chinese history tell us that the Emperor 
Fuh-hi (foo-hee) was living in the time of Noah. They 
state that much progress in civilization was made under his 
two successors^ — Shin-nung (shin-noong), that is, "the 
Husbandman," and Hwang-ti (hwhahng-tee), or the "Yel- 
low Emperor." New inventions increased the comfort of 
the people. Of Yau and the Deluge we have read in the 
last chapter. Until Yu, of whom I have told you, became 
Emperor, each ruler had always selected his successor; but 
from that time on it was the son who succeeded, although, 
if there were more sons than one, it was not necessarily 
the oldest. The Emperor retained the right to appoint as 
his successor any one of his sons. 

The first Emperor of the Shang family (b. c. 1760-1198) 
is said to have worshiped God under the name of Shang-ti 

ir8 



119 

(shahng-tee), or Supreme Ruler. When no rain fell for 
seven years, he prayed earnestly, saying : " Do not on ac- 
count of any neglect of mine, who am but a single individual, 
destroy the lives of the people ! " When his prayer was ended 
rain began to fall plentifully. 

The worship of images or idols began under Wu-yih 
(woo-yee), the twenty-fifth Emperor (b. c. 1198). He 
is spoken of as one of the most wicked of all China's rulers. 
The " History Made Easy," one of the Chinese books, tells 
us that he ordered images of clay to be made in the shape 
of human beings, and had them called gods. He grew tired 
of them, however, and cast them aside. Then he had leather 
bags made, filled with blood, which he threw up in the air. 
He shot at them with arrows, and when the blood was 
pouring down, he shouted : " I have killed the gods ! " 
The people soon grew very tired of such a madman, and 
another dynasty succeeded to the throne. 

The Tsin dynasty, from which probably we have the name 
of China, existed only three years under the Emperor Chi 
hwang-ti (chee hwahng-tee), which means " First Emperor." 
His father had made war upon the last of the Chau family, 
and compelled him to kneel in the dust at his feet. 

This First Emperor made his capital at Hien-yang (heen- 
yahng), on the River Hwai (hwie), where he built a great 
palace from the spoils of all the captive kings who had 
submitted to him, and he ordered that all the treasures of 
their palaces should be brought to him. He visited various 
parts of the empire, built public buildings, ordered canals 
and roads to be constructed, and drove the Huns back into 
Mongolia. It was he who continued that Great Wall, ex- 
tending from the sea to the desert, a distance of 1,250 miles. 



120 



This Wan-li Chang (wahn-lee chahng), or Myriad Mile 
Wall, as the Chinese call it, was constructed to keep out the 
Huns and other nomadic tribes (b. c. 220). 

This Emperor was very vain. He desired to be thought 
the first emperor the country ever had, and ordered that 
every book in China should be burned. This order was 









The Great Wall 



carried out, and all the historical records of the country, as 
well as the works of Confucius and Mencius, went up in 
flames. There is, however, no doubt that several copies of 
their works were saved. 

The Tsin dynasty did not. last long. Chi's successor was 
defeated by Liu Pang (leeo pahng), who, under the name 



i 



121 



of Kautsu (kah-oot-soo), was the founder of the Han. 
djaiasty. The Chmese say that their modern history com- 
mences at this time. The capital of China under the Han 
dynasty was first ni Shen-si (shen-see), but later at Loh- 
yang in the province of Ho-nan. 

When Ming ti (ming tee) was emperor, some learned men 
were sent to India (a. d. 65), where they studied the re- 
ligion of Buddha. From that time Buddhism spread in 
China, but became so steeped in superstition that nothing 
but the form remains. Ming and his successor, Chang, ex- 
tended the empire westward as far as the Caspian Sea. 
The Chinese had intercourse with the Romans. They say 
of Rome : " Everything precious and admirable in all 
other countries comes from this land. Gold and silver 
money is coined there; ten of silver are worth one of gold. 
Their merchants trade by sea with Persia and India, and 
gain ten for one in their traffic. They are simple and honesty 
and never have two prices for their goods ; grain is sold 
among them very cheap, and large sums of money are 
employed in trade." 

The Tang (tahng) dynasty occupied the throne 287 years 
(a. d. 618-905), during which time China was probably 
the most civilized country in the world. Li Chi-min (lee 
chee-min), the son of the founder, was one of the best 
emperors of China. He was known for his goodness and 
wisdom, his temperance, refined taste, and love of art. The 
capital of the empire was again removed to Sien-gan (see-en- 
gahn), in Shen-si. It was he who established schools, and 
began the system of examinations for officers (a. d. 627). 
He ordered all the writings of Confucius and Mencius to 
be collected, and commanded that the memory of Confucius 



122 



should be honored by special ceremonies. A code of laws 
was also prepared by his order. 

Theodosius, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, 
sent an envoy to Sien-gan, bearing presents of emeralds 
and rubies. It was at this time that the first Christian 
missionaries entered China. The Emperor Tai-tsung (tie- 
tsoong) listened to them with interest, and ordered a temple 
to be built for them. He also had some of their sacred 
books translated into Chinese (a. d. 643). 

After a reign of tweny-three years, Tai-tsung died, and 
was succeeded by his son Kau-tsung (kah-oh tsoong). 
Under him the conquest of Korea, commenced by his father, 
was completed. It was, however, not he who ruled, but a 
woman named Wu Tsih-tien (woo tsee-teen). She obtained 
such power over him, that the real Empress was first de- 
graded and afterwards put to death, when this woman took 
her place. After h^r husband's death she ruled in her own 
name. She extended the limits of the empire, but did not 
hesitate to murder anyone opposing her, not even her own 
sons. At last, when she was very old, one of her sons — 
Chung-tsung (choong-tsoong) — entered into a conspiracy 
against h^ and confined her within her own apartments. 
Here she died at the age of eighty-one. Her reign is given 
as an instance of the evil of allowing women to meddle with 
the government. 

From A. D. 1 127-1280 the empire was attacked by the 
Mongols. About 1245 Li-tsung (lee-tsoong) calling in 
the help of Kublai Khan (kooblie khahn), his son, Ti Ping 
(tee ping), drowned himself. The Mongols, now in pos- 
session of Northern China, lost no time in invading the 
south. Kublai founded the Yuen (yoo-en) dynasty, and 



123 



built the Grand Canal. The Mongols, however, were ex- 
pelled in 1368, and the Ming or Bright dynasty succeeded. 

The son of the founder, Yung-loh (yoong-loh) removed 
the capital to Peking from Nanking, where his father had 
lived. He was also the author of the code of laws which 
is still supposed 10 be in force in China. It was during 




Marble Arch, Ming Tombs 

this dynasty that the Portuguese and Jesuits came into 
China. In the year 1618 Tien-ming (teen-ming), a Manchu 
prince, declared war against the Ming. He died in 1627, 
but left his army in command of his son, Tien-tsung (teen- 
tsoong). At this time the empire was disturbed by insur- 
rections, and one of the rebels attacked Peking, whereupon 



124 



the last of the Ming hanged himself (1643). While dif- 
ferent rebels were claiming the throne, the Manchu Tien- 
tsung marched upon the capital, and "declared himself em- 
peror. He died the following year, and his son Shun-chi 
(shoon-chee) is considered as the first emperor of the pres- 
ent Manchu, Tsing, or Pure dynasty. 

The Manchu introduced the fashion of shaving the head 
and wearing the c[ueue. Kang hi (kahng hee), his suc- 
cessor, reigned sixty-one years. It is said of him " that he 
was tireless in his duty to the government, careful to select 
none but honest and able officers, liberal toward others, but 
with simple tastes for himself, and eager to promote the 
happiness of the people by the steady execution of the laws, 
and by watching over the conduct of the high officers." 

His grandson Kien-lung (keen-loong) proved worthy of 
his grandfather. He also reigned sixty years. It was 
he who subdued Thibet. He received embassies from the 
Russians, Dutch, and English, so that China became better 
known in Europe. The Chinese were confirmed in their 
theory that theirs is the Middle Kingdom, and that all other 
kings and, emperors must acknowledge an older brother in 
their Tien-tsz', and as such do homage to him. Tribute 
was never expected. Kien-lung died in 1799, having given 
the throne in 1796 to his fifth son,' Kia-King (kee-ah king), 
who reigned twenty-five years. 

Kia-King was succeeded by Tau Kwang (tah-oh kwahng) " 
in 1 82 1. His reign was a constant succession of wars and 
insurrections, and is remarkable because for the first time in 
its long existence China was involved in a war with Euro- 
peans. This war and its results are too important for brief 
mention and will be treated in another chapter. 



125 

Tail Kwang was the sixth emperor of the Manchu, or 
Tsing dynast}^ He was the second son of Kia-King, and 
was born in 1781, hence he was forty years old when he 
succeeded his father. As a man, he was fitted for times of 
peace, but was unable to meet or overcome the difficulties 
which filled his reign. 

Each emperor, upon ascending the throne, assumes a 
certain name by which, not he, but the period of his reign, 
shall be known. Thus, Tau Kwang means Glory of Reason. 
The family name is Gioro (gee-oh-roh), from their ancestor 
Aisin Gioro (i-sin). The' word Tsing, or Purity, denotes 
that the dynasty shall be known by the purity of its justice. 
It is the same with other dynasties : Ming, the Illustrious ; 
Yuen, the Original, etc. The present dynasty is also men- 
tioned as the Ta Tsing (tah tsing). Ta is a prefix mean- 
ins: Great. 



CONFUCIUS — 551-479 B. C 

IN the year 551 b. c, during the reign of the Emperor 
Ling Wang, a boy was born at Yin-chow, in the province 
of Shan-tung. His father, named Kung, was a judge; he 
died when the child was three years old. The boy's mother 
brought him up, and took care that he was well taught. 
This shows how civilized the Chinese were at the time when 
kings were ruling in Rome, and long before the foundation 
of the Roman Empire. 

The boy, who was named Chong-ni, grew up and showed 
a taste for old writings. He was steady and quiet, and 
thereby gained the respect of his neighbors. When he was 
seventeen years old he received an appointment in the 
revenue office. A few years later he was promoted to an 
office somewhat like that of surveyor. When he was twenty- 
four years old, his mother died. There was an old custom 
or law (law and custom have almost the same meaning in 
China), that an officer, upon the death of a parent, must 
resign his position, and live in retirement for three years. 
This custom had gone out of use, but Chong-ni acted upon 
it. He resigned, and withdrew into retirement. 

During these three years Chong-ni devoted his entire time 
to the study of the old writers. It was his intention to teach 

126 



127 

their doctrine to the people, and hoped to induce them in this 
manner to return to the customs of former times. After 
the period of his mourning was over, he spent several 
years in traveling, and at the age of thirty he returned to 
Yin-chow. 

From this time the boy Chong-ni became known as Kung 
Fu-tsz', or Kung the Teacher, which many years afterwards 
was turned into the Latin form of Confucius by the Jesuit 
priests in China. He settled down in Yin-chow as a teacher, 
and the number of his pupils grew rapidly, until he was 
asked to come to the court of the Prince of Tsi (tsee). He 
accepted; but when he came there he did not like court 
life, and so, with those students who had followed him, he 
continued his travels, teaching all the time. 

One day as he was passing through a field, he noticed 
a man engaged in snaring birds, and placing them in dif- 
ferent cages. Kung Fu-tsz' looked on for a time, while his 
students were wondering why their teacher took such an 
interest in such a simple thing. He finally went up to the 
man, and said : 

" I do not see any old birds here ; where have you put 
them?" 

" The old birds," replied the man, " are too wary to be 
caught. They are on the lookout, and if they see a net or 
cage, far from falling into the snare, they fly away and 
never return. The young ones, which keep with them, also 
escape. I can catch only such as fly out by themselves, or 
go in company with other young birds. If I do sometimes 
catch an old bird, it is because it follows the young ones." 

" Did you hear that ?" asked Confucius, turning to his 
students. " The young birds escape only when they keep 



128 



with the old ones. It is always so with us. Our young 
people are led astray by boldness, want of forethought, in- 
attention, and by thinking that they know more than older 
people. And when the old ones are caught, it is because 
they are foolishly attached to the young, and allow them- 
selves to be led astray by them." 

Confucius was sixty-eight years old before he returned to 
Yin-chow. Here he continued to teach a very large num- 
ber of students, at the same time collecting the ancient 
writings. When he had completed this work, he invited 
his students to go with him to one of the neighboring hills 
where for many years sacrifices had been offered. Here 
he had an altar built ; put his books upon it, and, turning his 
face toward the north, he fell upon his knees and thanked 
Heaven that life and strength had been given to him to 
finish the difficult task, and prayed that the Chinese might 
benefit largely by his work. 

There are several Chinese pictures of Confucius kneeling 
as in prayer, with a beam of light shining upon his books, 
while his students stand around filled with wonder and 
admiratiop. 

A few days before his death he said : 

Tai shan, ki tui hu ! (Pron.) Tie shan, kee twee hoo ! 
Liang muh, ki hwai hu ! Leeang moo, kee hwie hoo ! 

Chi jin, ki wei hu ! Chee jin, kee way hoo ! 

TRANSLATION : 

The great mountain is broken ! 
The strong beam is thrown down ! 
The wise man is decayed ! 



129 



He died in 479 b. c.^ leaving one grandson called Tsz' sze. 
His descendants are hereditary dukes of the empire. Many- 
temples have been erected in China in his honor, and he is 
considered as little less than a god by the Chinese. Con- 
fucius' life was devoted to the study and examination of the 
ancient writings, which he resolved to teach to his coun- 




Confucian Temple 

trymen. This proves how old the civilization of China is, 
when at such a remote period, 2,450 years ago, it was pos- 
sible to collect writings which were old at that time. It 
is remarkable that the teachings of Confucius contained 
nothing new or startling, but aimed at a return to former 
habits and customs. China must have been, indeed, a 
country far advanced in civilization, when a thoughtful 

STO. OF CHINA — 



I30 

man like Confucius could devote his life to urging the 
Chinese to return to the customs of bygone years. But 
what is most remarkable of all, is that his life should 
have had such an influence upon hundreds of millions of 
men. 

Confucius says of himself : " The wise man and the man 
of virtue — how dare I rank myself with them ! It may 
simply be said of me that I ever strive to improve, and that 
I never grow weary of teaching others. I may be equal 
to other men in knowledge of literature; but I have failed 
to reach the character of a superior man, one who carries 
out in his conduct what he teaches. These are the things 
which cause me fear : that I do not properly cultivate virtue ; 
that I do not discuss thoroughly what I learn ; that I am 
unable to act with righteousness when I know it; and that 
I. am not able to change that which is not good. I am not 
one who was born wise. I am one who is fond of olden 
times, and who is seeking knowledge there. I am not a 
maker, but only one who transmits ; but I am one who 
believes in and loves the wise men of old." 

Confucius collected the Wu-King or Five Classics, and 
the S'sliii tr Four Books. The Five Classics, of which the- 
Shu-King' is one, contains Spring and Autumn, a work writ- 
ten by Confucius himself. 

Confucius was not one of the wise men, like those who 
flourished in Rome and Greece, who taught of a future life. 
When one of his students once asked him what death meant, 
he answered sadly : " How can I tell you about death, when 
1 am not perfectly acquainted with life?" His teachings 
embraced only the relations of life and its duties. The great 
principle taught by him, which can be perceived through- 



i 



131 

out every institution of China, is the relation of the child 
toward the parent, or, as it is called, filial piety. There 
is no greater duty with the Chinese, nor is there a disgrace 
more dreaded than that of being thought Puh-hiao (poo- 
heeahoh), viz., iiiidutiful. At the very earliest age, children 
are taught to be respectful and dutiful; such a thing as 
familiarity between child and parent is absolutely unknown. 
As the children grow up their old parents are entitled to 
be reverenced and cherished; all their wants must be an- 
ticipated, and everything must be done to please them. When 
the parents are dead, they must be worshiped by their chil- 
dren and sacrifices must be offered to them. The highest 
honor that can befall a man is to bring honor upon his 
ancestors. 

The punishments for undutiful behavior to parents are 
horrible in their cruelty. But, as we shall see in another 
chapter, it is this principle of filial piety which renders the 
Chinese submissive to the authorities. For the Emperor 
is the father of all, and, since his authority is transferred 
to officers, disobedience to them would equal undutiful 
conduct. 

The relation between husband and wife is simple. The 
wife's duty is to honor and obey, while the husband appears 
to have no duties at all toward her. When it was known in 
Peking that the wife of Prince Kung was dead, a gentle- 
man of the United States Legation asked a high Chinese 
official if Prince Kung would retire for a while, or go into 
mourning. " Oh, no !" he replied, smiling, " the death of a 
wife is nothing at all. Why should the Prince go into mourn- 
ing for her ? He can get as many more wives as he wishes." 
But if very little is said of the duties between husband and 



132 

v/ife, much is said as to the attitude of the elder brother to 
the younger. The rule is : Hiung ai, ti kin (heeoong ie, 
tee kin), that is: The elder must love, and the younger 
must respect. 

This relationship of elder brother and younger was shown 
in China's conduct toward Korea, which country was thought 
to be tributary to China. Korea never paid any tribute, 
but sent presents to the Emperor of China on New ^Year's 
Day, and received in return presents of far greater value. 

Confucius mentions five great virtues, and among these 
Jen, or charity, ranks first. When one of his students asked 
him if there was anything which might serve as a rule of 
practice for all one's life, he replied : " What you do not 
want done to yourself do not do to others." This rule is 
very similar to our Golden Rule, and comes nearer the teach- 
ing of the New Testament than any other saying of the old 
philosophers. 

The motive of Confucius' teaching was his earnest desire 
to return to the ancient or patriarchal form of government. 
He had not the least idea that he was preparing a set of 
laws, but he wished men to be governed by moral influences 
only. He" believed that if the emperors would set an ex- 
ample of virtue, the people would respect, obey and imitate 
them. For more than two thousand years his teaching has 
been the real law of the people. The Chinese still cling to 
the law of filial piety, which is good, and to that of an- 
cestral worship, which is bad. They refuse to admit that 
their condition might be improved, and would sooner die 
than permit changes to be made. 

The following is an extract from General Wilson's book 
on China, describing his visit to the tomb of Confucius : 



133 

" The grave of Confucius is within a separate enclosure, 
the entrance to which is covered by a large pavihon of the 
usual type, where the descendants of the sage come twice 
a year to offer sacrifices and worship him. A paved, sunken 
road, which runs between low retaining-walls on each side, 
leads to the tomb, which, is a simple mound of earth about 
twenty feet high, overgrown by bushes and forest trees, in- 
cluding an oak. A stone tablet, nearly as high as the mound,, 
a stone table, and an urn or incense-burner, stand in front 
of it. It is flanked by the burial-mounds of the mother, son, 
and grandson of Confucius, and the whole inclosure is 
heaped into mounds covering the remains of the successive 
heads and dignitaries of the family." ' 

''China, James Harrison Wilson; D. Appleton & Co. 



EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA 

THE Chinese are mentioned by the Greeks as the Seres. 
This word is probably derived from the Chinese sze, 
meaning the silk fiber or thread. " The region of the Seres," 
says a Greek writer, " is a vast and populous country, touch- 
ing on the east the ocean and the limits of the habitable 
world ; and extending west nearly to Imaus and the confines 
of Bactria. The people are civilized men, of mild, just, and 
frugal temper; avoiding quarrels with their neighbors, and 
even shy of close intercourse, but not unwilling to dispose 
of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple, but 
which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable 
quality." At that time the Chinese were known for their 
honesty, aad they" are known so still among the other people 
of Asia. 

Chinese writers state that there was trade between their 
country and one which they call Tat-sin Kwoh. This was 
probably the Roman Empire. Roman writers also mention 
China, and it is well known that silk was brought to Rome, 
where it sold at a high price. It is said that two monks 
brought the first silkworm eggs to Constantinople in the 
sixth century after Christ. They had hidden them in a 
hollow bamboo staff. 

134 



135 



Although among Europeans trade was always the prin- 
cipal cause for exploring new countries, another reason was 
the desire to preach the Gospel. There is a tradition that 
a pious man went to China from the country of Ta-Tsin 
(Palestine) in the year 636 a. d,, and that he was kindly 
received by the Emperor. Not very long ago a stone was 
standing in the yard of a temple at Sian-Fu (see-ahn foo). 
It had an inscription in the Syrian and Chinese characters, 
and bore the date 781 a. d. It was the only trace left of 
the work of those old missionaries. The inscription, trans- 
lated, reads as follows : 

"A stone tablet commemorating the diffusion of the illus- 
trious religion in China by a priest from the Church in 
Ta-Tsin (Palestine), with a preface, written by King Tsing." 

The first really good description we have of China is given 
by two Arabians in the years 850 and 877 a. d. They 
describe their journey, the customs of the Chinese, what 
goods are most in demand, and how to carry on trade. At 
that time the city of Hang-chow, where the trade was con- 
ducted, was one of the largest and wealthiest in the world. 
It was destroyed in a. d. 877, from which year Canton 
became the market for foreign trade. 

A well-known account of China is that given by Marco 
Polo. Nicolo Polo, a noble of Venice, and the father of 
Marco, left that city about the year 1250 a. d., with his 
brother Matteo, on a trading voyage to the Crimea. From 
there they drifted eastward until they came to China, which 
had lately been conquered by Kublai Khan. They were 
kindly received, and after remaining some time, received 
permission to return home, on condition that they would 
come back to China. In 1274 they did so, this time accom- 



136 



panied by Marco, then a boy of sixteen. They arrived safely, 
and were again received in high favor. Marco took office un- 
der the Chinese and rose to the position of Tao-tai(tah-o-tie) 
or Prefect of Che-Kiang (chay-keeahng). This time Marco 
and his father and uncle remained in China for many years, 
and finally returned home by v^ay of Southern Asia. But 
when they reached Venice they were so changed that no- 




House Boats on the River at Canton 

body recognized them, and the Venetians at first refused 
to believe that they were really the three Polos. 

Everyone was amazed at the number of diamonds, rubies, 
and other precious stones that they had brought back with 
them. When the news of their great wealth became known 
in Venice, all their former friends and acquaintances hur- 



137 

ried to their house to congratulate them. Everybody wanted 
to know their adventures, and Marco was asked to give 
an account of what they had seen. 

In his book he tells about the conquest of China by Kublai 
Khan and his fierce Mongols that had taken place only a 
few years before his arrival in that country. He visited 
the southern part of China, and says " that the number of 
inhabitants is so great that no person can count them, and if 
they were men-at-arms," (that is, soldiers) "those of the 
province of Manji (mahn-jee) would conquer the whole 
world; they are not so, however, but prudent merchants." 

Marco Polo was afterwards captured in a war with Genoa 
and thrown into prison. This was several years after his 
return. As he had nothing to do, he began to dictate further 
accounts of his travels to a fellow-prisoner, who wrote them 
down in French. A famous German writer says of him : 
" If the name of Discoverer of Asia were to be given to 
any person, nobody would deserve it better than Marco 
Polo." 

In strong contrast with Marco Polo's account of China 
is that of Sir John Mandeville, a Knight of St. Albans, 
who claims that " he passed the sea on St. Michael's Day of 
the year 1322," and that he wrote his adventures in English, 
" so that other noble and worthy men, if he err from defect 
of memory, may redress and amend it." It seems that Sir 
John's memory was very short indeed ; or else, his imag- 
ination must have been remarkable. He says that in the 
Far East he learned of men and women who have " dogs' 
heads, and they are reasonable and of good understanding, 
except that they worship an ox for their god." He claims 
to have discovered a country where there is " a kind of 



138 

snails so great that many persons lodge in their shells, as 
men would do in a little house;" and another where "are 
white hens without feathers, but they bear white wool, as 
sheep do here." He must have discovered some very curious 
islands, for in one of them " are people of great stature, Hke 
giants, hideous to look upon; and they have but one eye, 
which is in the middle of the forehead, and they eat nothing 
but raw flesh and fish." In another island " there were 
dwarfs vAio have no mouth, but instead of a mouth they 
have a little round hole; and when they eat or drink they 
take it through a pipe, or pen, or such thing, and suck it 
in." 

In describing China, he says : " The greatest river of 
fresh water in the world is there, which, where it is nar- 
rowest is more than four miles broad. This remarkable 
river flows through the land of pigmies, where the people 
are only three span long. These men are the best workers 
of gold, silver, cotton, and silk, and of such things that 
are to be found in the worjd. They have sometimes a war 
with the birds of the country, which they kill and eat. They 
do not admire the men of our stature, any more than we 
do giants. Cathay is a great country, fair, noble, rich, and 
full of merchants." In the palace " all the vessels that men 
are served with, in the hall or in chambers, are of precious 
stones ; and especially at great tables, either of jasper, or of 
crystal, or of amethyst, or of fine gold. And the cups are 
of, emeralds, and sapphires or topazes, and of many other 
precious stones. Vessels of silver there are none, for they 
set no value on it to make vessels of ; but they make there- 
with steps and pillars and pavements to halls and chambers." 

Sir John tells many other stories even more marvelous 



139 



than these. People at that time beheved them, and so it is 
no wonder that they were anxious to find a short route to 
Cathay. 

A more truthful story is told by Friar Odoric, who really 
did travel in China at about the time when Sir John Mande- 
ville said that he was there. Odoric noticed the peculiar 
method of fishing with cormorants ; that of allowing the 

finger nails to grow 
long, and he speaks of 
the custom of dwarf- 
ing the feet of women. 
His description of the 
division of the Khan's 
empire into twelve 
provinces with four 
viceroys is correct, as 
are also the names 
Hand Showing the Long Finger Nails mentioned by him of 
the post stations. But he is, like most men of that age, very 
superstitious, and is apt to explain what he does not under- 
stand by magic or witchcraft. 

How a Jewish colony came to settle in the heart of China 
will probably remain a mystery forever. It was located at 
Kai-fung (kie-foong), about 450 miles southwest of Peking. 
In 1850 some rolls or scrolls covered with Hebrew char- 
acters were bought from the descendants of former Jews. 
It was said that a synagogue had been built here in 11 64, 
the ruins of which Dr. Martin discovered when he visited the 
place in 1866. At the present time there are a sufficient 
number of Jews in the province of Ho-nan to form a separate 
community. 




140 



Before the discovery of America, in 1492, no strong effort 
was made to trade with China. Venice, up to that time, had 
been the center of European commerce, and she was satisfied 
to purchase her stock from the Arabs, who brought their 
goods by caravans to the coast of the Mediterranean. At 
the beginning of the sixteenth century a daring spirit of 
exploration was aroused in Europe. 



THE EUROPEAN EXPLORERS IN CHINA 

THE Portuguese were among the first European explorers 
to arrive in China. The Arabs, who had, until the six- 
teenth century, been in possession of the trade, were peace- 
able merchants, with whom the government was friendly. 
The first explorers, of whatever nation, were essentially 
pirates, and it was from them that the Chinese formed an 
estimate of the European character. A Chinese author gives 
the following description of the arrival of the first white 
strangers : 

"During the reign of Ching-ti (ching-tee) (1506), for- 
eigners from the west, called Fah-lan-ki (fah-lahn-kee, 
Franks), who said they had tribute, abruptly entered the 
BogLie (entrance of the West River), and by their exceed- 
ingly loud guns, shook the place far and near. This was 
reported at court, and an order was given to drive them 
away at once, and to stop trading" with them. At this time 
also the Dutch came to Macao (mah-cow) in two or three 
large ships. Their clothes and their hair were red ; their 
bodies were tall ; they had blue eyes, sunk deep in their 
head. Their feet were one cubit and two-tenths long; and 
they frightened the people by their strange appearance." 

The Portuguese sent four ambassadors to the Emperor 
of China, but not one of these was received. The conduct 

141 



142 



of most of the early Europeans was such as to draw upon 
them the disHke of the orderly and well-behaved Chinese. 
One instance will prove enough : 

Among the first Portuguese to reach China was Hernan- 
dez Mendez Pinto. His ships had been plundered by pirates, 
and the crew made its way to Ningpo, where a number of 
Portuguese had formed a settlement. They were received 
here with " great affection and Christian charity " by their 
fellow-countrymen, and were told that China was in a very 
unsettled condition, so that there was not much danger in 
plundering and burning any city. That was good news for 
them. And when Pinto and his men heard that somewhere 
to the northeast there was an island containing seventeen 
golden tombs of former Chinese kings, besides many idols 
of the same metal, they determined to find that; island. They 
cruised around for a long time, and at last came to an island 
where they did find some tombs, not of gold, but of gilt 
copper. They broke open the graves, and found there a 
quantity of silver, which they carried aboard their boat. 
After they left the island, a storm overtook them and they 
were shi]3wrecked near the coast. Pinto and thirteen others 
escaped by swimming; the other sailors were drowned. 

The people on the coast were kind-hearted, gave them 
rice to eat, and pointed out the way to a pagoda (pali-go- 
dah) and temple where people in misfortune were always 
assisted. When they arrived at the temple they were asked 
who they were and where they came from. They replied 
that they were poor fishermen from Siam ; that their boat 
had been wrecked, and they were castaways. The priests 
kept them for several days, although very poor themselves. 
They then left and visited another temple, where they were 



143 

equally well received. Thus they tramped through that 
province for about two months, taking care not to enter into 
any large city, for fear of being recognized as Portuguese. 
This shows that they were aware that the people had good 
reason to hate them. 

At last they grew more careless, and entered the town of 
Tai pol (tie pol). As they went begging from door to door, 
a judge noticed them. They were arrested, and cast into 
prison, where they were put in chains. Here one of 
them died. After twenty-six days, they were taken to a 
boat, together with about twenty Chinese prisoners, and 
brought to Nanking. Pinto, who, at least, tells the truth 
in his story, describes this city as very large and populous. 
Here they were taken before a very severe judge, who or- 
dered them to be flogged on the bare back. As a result 
of this punishment two of them died. Some kind-hearted 
Buddhist visited the prison, dressed their sores, and begged 
the judge to send them to the Supreme Court at Peking. 
The request was granted, and soon Pinto and his men 
were carried to the capital by way of the Grand Canal. 

They were surprised at the beauty and strength of this 
waterway, and at the number and elegance of the bridges, 
pagodas, tombs, arches, and fountains. Pinto also describes 
the quiet manner of the Chinese, and their evident order 
and industry. In this manner they arrived at Peking, where 
they were put into another prison. Soon after they were 
taken to the Supreme Court, where they were pardoned 
and set free. 

They spent two months at Peking, where they found many 
charitable people. They were then sent to Kinsai (kin-sie), 
and taken into the service of the governor, as members of 



144 



his bodyguard. Here they were treated with great kind- 
ness, until one day they began quarreUng among themselves, 
and some blood was shed. The Chinese object to fight- 
ing, which they consider a great breach of good manners, 
so the Portuguese were again thrown into prison, and 
each received another flogging. After eight weeks of im- 




The Grand Canal 

prisonment they were released, but taken as slaves, and the 
governor told them that if they ever fought again they 
would be flogged to death. 

They now had a very hard time of it. They received no 
pay for their work, not even food, but had to beg for it. 



145 

Luckily, one of them, named Caspar, had a good voice 
and could play the guitar. When this became known, 
wealthy Chinese, upon giving a dinner to their friends, 
would send for him, and pay him liberally for the amuse- 
ment he afforded. Whatever Caspar earned in this manner 
was equally divided. At last the Manchu Tartars captured 
Kinsai, and the Portuguese were released.^ 

In about the middle of the sixteenth century the Portu- 
guese were permitted to erect sheds at Macao to protect 
their merchandise from the weather. Cradually they began 
to build houses, and bring their families. This was against 
the laws of the empire, and to show that the Chinese would 
not permit Europeans to enter China, they built a wall across 
the narrow isthmus which connects the tiny peninsula of 
Macao with the mainland. A Chinese officer was appointed 
by the Emperor to watch the behavior of the Portuguese 
and report if he saw anything amiss. 

In the year 1570 two Spanish priests came to China from 
Manila. Their appearance attracted so much attention that 
people would climb on poles and even upon the housetops 
to catch a glimpse of them. They were very kindly treated. 
When they expressed a wish to go out, they were provided 
with sedan chairs, and were permitted to travel through 
the country; but they were closely watched, and unable 
to secure any information. 

At last the Chinese thought that these strangers had seen 
enough of their country. So they told them, politely but 
firmly, that it was about time to go home. They were 
escorted to Canton, where a ship was in readiness to take 
them back to Manila. 

^Romance of Travel, C. Marfarlane. 

STO. OF CHINA — 10 



146 



The first Catholic missionary who succeeded in obtaining 
a foothold in China was Matteo Ricci (mat-tay-oh rick- 
chee), who arrived at Canton in 1581, dressed as a Buddhist 
priest. He was an able and highly educated man, possess- 
ing a firm will, zealous but prudent. He devoted much 
time to studying the language, and in 1601 moved to 
Peking, where he arrived dressed as a literary gentleman. 
His manners and language made him many friends, and 
he gained much influence over the officials of the capital. 
Several of his associates arrived in China and followed the 
example of Ricci, so that, when they began to preach, they 
made a number of converts. Ricci translated Euclid's Ge- 
ometry into Chinese. 

Other Jesuit missionaries began to arrive, and the govern- 
ment grew suspicious. In 1617 an edict was issued ordering 
them to leave Peking and to return to Europe by way of 
Canton. Some of them obeyed, but most of them did not. 
These men must have studied and worked very hard, for 
in the year 1636, only thirty-five years after Ricci had 
arrived at Peking, they had printed in Chinese 470 books, 
some on religion, but most of them on natural philosophy 
and mathematics. 

Ricci died in 1610, at the age of eighty. Soon after a 
German Jesuit, named Schaal, came to Peking. His learning 
placed him at the head of the missions, and Schaal became 
one of the most famous m.en in the Empire. At this time 
the ancestors of the present Emperor, the Manchu, began 
to make war upon the Ming family, who occupied the 
throne, and the missions suffered severely, although the 
converts numbered several hundred thousand. 

The Ming was dethroned, and the Manchu became Em- 



147 

peror (1644). Schaal soon grew to be a great favorite. 
He was appointed president of the Kin Tien Kien (kin teen 
keen), or Board of Astronomy, and was made a mandarin 
of the first class. He also built two churches at Peking, 
and at his request other missionaries were allowed to come. 

Among the native converts was a man named Siu(see-oo), 
and his daughter, who had received the name of Candida. 
Both worked hard for the missions, and did much good. 
It was owing to Candida that thirty-nine churches were 
established in the provinces ; she founded a hospital for 
deserted children, and an institution for the blind. She 
and her father were so much respected by the people that 
in some parts of China they are still worshiped as gods. 

The quarrels among the different religious orders at- 
tracted the attention of the government, and in 1665 an 
edict was published whereby the missionaries were ban- 
ished. Schaal died the following year, at the age of seventy- 
eight. When, ten years later, the Emperor Kang hi (kahng 
hee) succeeded to the throne, the Jesuits were once more 
takn into favor. 

They used their time well, and, if it had not been for 
the quarrels among the religious orders, China might have 
been a Catholic country. In the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, there were in the two Kiang provinces no less than 
one hundred churches, and at least a hundred thousand 
converts. In 1708 the Jesuits were charged by the Emperor 
to make a survey of the Empire. 

But the disputes among the orders once more attracted 
the attention of the government, and the Emperor was 
persuaded that the new religion would destroy his authority. 
He issued a decree in 17 18, in which he ordered all mis- 



148 



sionaries to leave the country except such as promised to 
obey his laws. Those who remained were kept at Peking, 
while the persecution of the native Christians commenced 
in the provinces. 

The successor of Kang hi, the Emperor Yung-ching 
(yoong-ching), issued an order in 1724 by which it was 




A Chinese Christian Congregation 

forbidden to preach the Tien Chu Kiau (teen choo keeow) 
or religion of the Lord of Heaven, as the Christian faith 
has been called by the Chinese. All missionaries whose 
services as teachers of sciences were not needed at Peking 
were ordered to leave the country. A great many did not 
obey, but hid themselves for a time, in the hope that they 
would be allowed to continue their teaching once more. 



i 



149 

Emperor Kien-lung (keen-loong), who ascended the 
throne in 1736, was strongly opposed to the missionaries. 
Persecution recommenced, and in 1747 extended over all 
the provinces. Gradually this persecution increased, and 
no more missionaries were permitted to enter the country. 
Those who defied the laws were compelled to conceal them- 
selves ; but the Catholic religion was never wholly destroyed 
in China. 



THE DUTCH IN CHINA, AND WHAT THEY DID 

NO country in the world depends so much upon trade 
for its existence as Holland. It was trade which 
gave the Dutch the means to fight with Spain for eighty 
years (1568- 1648), and thereby to gain their independence. 
During the early part of the struggle the Dutch explored the 
Indian and Pacific Oceans. Most of these early explorers 
were really nothing more than pirates. They had no respect 
for other people's property. They were in search of gold, 
and took it wherever they could find it. 

After the Dutch had established themselves on the Island 
of Java, building Batavia upon the site of a fort called 
Jacatra, 161 9, they turned their attention toward China. 
A fleet of seventeen ships appeared before Macao in 1622, 
and attacked that place, but the Dutch were repulsed by the 
Portugue^ and Japanese. They established themselves, 
however, in 1624, on the Pang-hu (pahng-hoo) or Pisca- 
dores Islands. Here they began to build a fort, which caused 
great uneasiness to the Chinese of Fuh-Kien (foo keen), as 
well as to the Portuguese and Spaniards. There were bitter 
quarrels and some fighting between the Dutch and Chinese, 
and at last it was agreed that the former should move to 
Formosa, which they did in the same year. Here they built 
a fort on the western shore, which they named Zeelandia. 
The Dutch tried to introduce civilization in the island, and 

ISO 



151 



to teach the natives how to govern themselves. Two years 
afterwards, a preacher, George Candidius by name, arrived, 
and began to preach Christianity so earnestly that within 
six months a hundred of the natives were baptized. 
Schools were built, the children were taught, and one of 
the ministers made a dictionary of the native language. 
Thousands of Chinese came over from the mainland, and 
the island began to look like a garden. 

Just as the English factories and agencies in Asia were 
under the control of what was called the East India Com- 
pany, so the Dutch East India Company decided all matters 
connected with the Asiatic trade of Holland. That com- 
pany sent, in 1653, a commissioner named Schedel to Can- 
ton, who, after making rich presents to the governor, ob- 
tained the promise that the Dutch should be permitted to 
build a factory. The governor also advised Schedel to tell 
the Dutch to send an embassy to Peking. Schedel made 
a report to the company at Amsterdam to this effect, and 
it was decided to act upon his advice. 

Two merchants of Batavia, named Coyer and Keyzer, 
Avere appointed to go to Peking, where they arrived without 
any trouble, and were received by the Emperor. The result 
of this visit to Peking was that the Dutch received permis- 
sion to come to Peking once in every eight years, and to 
bring four ships to trade. The merchants returned to Ba- 
tavia in 1657. 

Soon after their return a Chinese chief named Ching 
Ching-Kung, called Coxinga by the Portuguese, prepared 
to attack Formosa. The Dutch had been expecting this, 
and since 1650 had put the fort Zeelandia into a state of 
defense. Ching had sent men among the Chinese of For- 



152 



mosa to secure their assistance. He prepared a fleet at 
Amoy, but declared that it was not to attack Formosa, but 
to fight the Manchu, who had nearly conquered China. The 
Dutch East India Company believed him, and ordered their 
admiral to leave Formosa. As soon as he was gone, Ching 
landed with an army of 25,000 men. 

He began by laying siege to the forts, when the Datch 
governor sent out 300 men to drive him away. They fought 
bravely, but the Chinese were too numerous, and only half of 
the Dutch returned. One of the ships in the harbor was 
burned by the Chinese, and another sailed for Batavia to 
obtain assitance. Ching then surrounded the fort with his 
soldiers, and when he saw that they could not take it by 
force, he determined to starve out the defenders. The sur- 
rounding country was plundered; the ministers were cru- 
cified, and the friendly Chinese were murdered. 

Among the prisoners taken by Ching was a minister 
named Anthony Hambroeck, his wife, and all his children, 
except two daughters who were in the fort. Ching sent 
him into Zeelandia, to order the governor to surrender the 
fort, and to say that if this were not done all the prisoners 
would be put to death. Hambroeck promised to return with 
the governor's answer. 

When he arrived at Zeelandia, the Dutch Governor called 
a meeting of the principal officers and merchants, and Ham- 
broeck told them that Ching had lost many of his best 
ships and men, and was growing tired of the siege ; that, if 
they would hold out a little longer, relief must come from 
Batavia, and the fort would be saved. He spoke so bravely 
that the governor decided to refuse to surrender, but to 
fight to the last. 



J 



153 



Now came Hambroeck's greatest trial. When he went 
to take leave of his daughters, they threw their arms around 
his neck and begged him to remain with them, as he 
would surely be murdered if he returned. He soothed 
them as best he could, and told them that for the sake of 
the others he must go. The officers, also, begged him not 
to return, but he replied that he had pledged his word, and 
as a Christian minister, he could not break it. The gate 
was opened, and the people of the fort watched him as he 
quietly returned to the Chinese camp. 

Ching was very angry when Hambroeck returned and told 
him that the fort would not surrender. He ordered the 
prisoners, 500 in all, to be cruelly butchered, and among 
them was the brave preacher whose name well deserves to 
be remembered. 

After some time a fleet of ten Dutch ships and seven 
hundred men arrived from Batavia, and, aided by the sol- 
diers of the fort, began to attack Ching. They were unable 
to drive him away from the town, but they checked his at- 
tacks. But finally, through the treachery of their Chinese 
allies, the Dutch were compelled to surrender the fort, after 
a siege of nine months (1667). 

The Dutch never again regained Formosa. The East 
India Company at Batavia decided upon punishing Ching, 
who was still holding Amoy. A fleet of twelve vessels was 
fitted out, and sailed under command of Admiral Bost. 
The Manchu did not help him much, but he attacked and 
destroyed Ching's ships and troops wherever he found them. 
He returned to Batavia the following year, and was again 
sent to China, this time to Fuh-Kien. After some fighting, 
Amoy was taken and Ching's troops destroyed. 



154 

The Company did not make any other -effort at coloniza- 
tion, but decided to send another embassy to Peking to ask 
for permission to trade. A merchant named Van Hoorn 
was placed at its head. He landed at Foochow in 1669, 
and was well received. A dispute with the governor de- 
tained him a year, after which he continued his journey 
to Peking, along the Grand Canal, where he counted 37 
cities and 335 villages. Van Hoorn was admitted to the 
presence of the Emperor, whom he saluted after the Chinese 
fashion, but he did not secure any privileges. 

No more embassies were sent to Peking for one hundred 
and twenty years. In 1794 Van Braam, the consul of Hol- 
land at Canton, proposed to send one to congratulate the 
PZmperor upon his sixtieth birthday anniversary. The Com- 
pany agreed, and sent Isaac Titsingh, who had lived for 
many years in Japan, with Van Braam as his deputy. The 
embassy arrived at Peking, where they were presented to 
the Emperor. They returned in 1796, without having ac- 
complished anything. Thus ends the story of Dutch enter- 
prise in China. 



RUSSIA'S OBJECT IN CHINA 

AS early as 1558 there is evidence that two Russian trav- 
elers entered the capital of China. Fifty years later 
an embassy from Russia was sent to China, but it proved 
fruitless. In 1643, while the Manchu were attacking China, 
several Russians, who had penetrated north of the Amur 
valley, commenced a series of explorations. Six years 
later an incursion was made under Chaboroff. The Czar 
Alexis sent an embassy to Peking in 1653, but as the 
Russians refused to kow-tow, or prostrate themselves before 
the Emperor, they were not received. In 1655 the Russian 
Stepanoff invaded China, but was defeated by the Manchu- 
Chinese army. During the years 1658, 1672, and 1677 
three trading caravans came to Peking, The Russian set- 
tlers on the banks of the Amur had frequent difficulties with 
Chinese soldiers, and a war of five years followed. It was 
ended in 1689 by the treaty of Nerchinsk, and the Amur 
valley was restored to China, while Russia secured a portion 
of the bank of the River Argun, a branch of the Upper 
Amur. 

After the boundary line between Chinese and Russian 
territory was decided, the Chinese commanders at the fron- 
tier received orders to inspect their posts every day. " Only 
in this way," says one writer, " could the frontier be kept 

iSS 



156 



for a hundred years against the Russians. Across the river 
horse-hair ropes were drawn for the same purpose." Peter 
the Great, in 1692, also sent an embassy to Peking. 

There was constant trouble near the frontier. In 17 15 
a considerable number of Russians, who had been taken pris- 
oners by the Chinese, were permitted to settle at Peking, 
and in 1727 they were allowed to build a church and school. 
In the same year another embassy was sent to Peking, 
which resulted in permission being given for a caravan 
to travel to China every three years. 

Twenty years before, the peninsula of Kamtchatka had 
been declared Russian territory, and in 1746 the Russian 
government was advised to establish a fortified post at the 
mouth of the Amur. Nothing was done, however, until 1806, 
when Captain Golofkin was sent to Peking to ask for free 
navigation on the Amur, or at least for permission to send 
a number of ships with provisions each year. The Chinese 
refused absolutely. 

No further attempts were made until Count Nicholas 
Murayieff was appointed Governor of Eastern Siberia in 
1847. He sent a party of Cossacks, or Russian soldiers, to 
explore the Amur River. This party left for the Amur in 
the spring of 1848, but was never heard of again. 

Muravieff, however, was not discouraged. He sent ves- 
sels to the Sea of Okhotsk and a survey of the coast was 
made. In 1850 Lieutenant Orloff discovered the mouth of 
the Amur River. Captain Nevilskoi ascended the Amur 
and founded Nikolayefsk, so named after the Czar Nicholas. 
Russian settlements were made along the coast, and in 
1853 one was established on the west coast of Saghalien, 
which island was settled by Japanese. 



157 

When the Crimean War broke out (i853)» Muravieff 
determined to seize the Amur. He sent a request to the 
Mandarin at Kiakhta (kee-ak-tah), to be allowed to send 
stores down the river to the Russian settlements. The an- 
swer was that nothing could be done without orders from 
Peking. Muravieff did not wait any longer. Supplies 
were badly needed on the Lower Amur, and necessity knows 
no law. The governor started down the Amur in the 
steamer Argun, with fifty barges and a large number of 
rafts. He also took with him a thousand soldiers and sev- 
eral big guns. 

The expedition arrived at Aigun (i-goon), where they 
found a number of junks moored by the bank. The Chinese 
mvited the Russians ashore, and entertained them in a tent 
near the river bank, since the entrance of strangers into the 
town was prohibited. The Russians noticed that the Chi- 
nese army was about a thousand strong, but that the men 
were wretchedly clothed and armed. Most of the soldiers 
carried bows and arrows, some had lances, others had poles 
blackened at the top to look like lances, and a few favored 
ones were proud in the possession of old, and evidently 
useless, matchlocks. Muravieff soon after returned to 
Irkutsk, well pleased at having descended the Amur to its 
mouth. 

During the Crimean War many of the new settlements 
on the Pacific were deserted, but after peace was concluded 
in 1856 the settlers returned. Muravieff had gone to St. 
Petersburg in 1855 to urge upon the government the advis- 
ability of planting of colonies on the Amur. He returned 
to Irkutsk in 1857, -i^^^ ^^ once organized new expeditions. 
During the summer a large number of settlers and quan- 



158 



tities of provisions were taken down the Amur. Among the 
travelers was Admiral Putiatin, who was on a mission to 
Japan and China. He sailed down the river, and, after 
calling at some of the Pacific Coast settlements, visited the 
island known as Port Hamilton, where he obtained permis- 
sion from Korea to establish a coaling station. From Port 
Hamilton Putiatin sailed to the Gulf of Pechili, and with 
considerable difficulty persuaded a mandarin to accept a 
letter to the Emperor. 

This letter was simply a request from the Czar to let him 
have Manchuria, offering in return to help put down the 
Tae-Ping (tie-ping) rebellion. The request was refused, 
and the only result was a number of protests from the 
mandarins on the frontier against the invasion of Chinese 
territory by the Russians. 

When he received these protests, Muraviefif hurried to 
St. Petersburg for instructions. The government decided 
to give him full power to treat with the Chinese, and to send 
him more troops. At this time the Chinese were at war 
with the English and the French, and when Muravieff ar- 
rived on. the Amur they were in no mood for any more 
fighting, after their experience with the English and French 
troops, and declared that they would let Russia have free 
navigation on the Amur. But Muravieff was no longer 
satisfied with such a concession. He asked for, and was 
given, the left bank of the Amur as far as the Ussuri (oo-soo- 
ree) River, and both banks from there to the sea. The Sun- 
gari and Ussuri River were also to be open to travelers and 
merchants carrying a Russian passport. This treaty was 
signed at Aigun on the 28th of May, 1858. In the mean- 
while Admiral Putiatin had not been idle. By the Treaty 



159 

of Tientsin he had secured for Russia the same privileges 
granted to the United States, England, and France, and an 
agreement besides, that the new frontier between China and 
Siberia should be surveyed and mapped. 

The new Russian territory, acquired without the expense 
of a dollar or the loss of a man, was divided into the mari- 
time Province of Eastern Siberia, and the Amur Province. 
In consequence of certain privileges ten thousand Russians 
arrived on the Amur at the beginning of 1859. When gold 
was discovered, in the same year, the number of settlers 
increased rapidly. 

In June, 1859, ^^e Chinese gained a brief victory over 
the English and French at the mouth of the Pei-ho River, 
and the mandarins began to annoy the Russian settlers on 
the Amur in every way. General Ignatieff was sent with 
a complaint to Peking. When he arrived the British and 
French were about to enter the city. The mandarins did 
not want any more fighting, and when Ignatieff demanded 
the whole of the maritime Province of Manchuria, the coun- 
try round Lake Balkash, and part of Turkestan, and permis- 
sion for Russian merchants to travel to Peking, the Chinese 
agreed to these terms by the Treaty of Peking, signed on 
November 14th, i860. 

In the western part of China many of the people are 
Mohammedans. These people rose in rebellion in 1863, ^^'^ 
every attempt of the Chinese government to restore order 
failed. Then the Russians determined to put down the re- 
bellion. As soon as the Russian troops appeared, the rebels 
dispersed, and Russia occupied their territory. China de- 
manded that the Russians should withdraw their army. 
The latter, however, remained, and the Chinese did not care 



i6o 



to risk a fight. In 1879 a mandarin of high rank, named 
Chung-How (choong-how) was sent to St. Petersburg, and 
Russia offered to restore part of the territory upon the 
payment of five million rubles. Chung-How seeing that 
this was the best he could do, agreed, and returned to 
Peking. 

The Empress-Dowager was very indignant. Chung-How 
was taken to prison and sentenced to death. When the 
Czar heard this he began to send men and ships to the 
Chinese Coast, and the Empress-Dowager, ordered Marquis 
Tseng, the Chinese Ambassador in London, to go to St. 
Petersburg and arrange terms. He agreed to the Treaty 
of St. Petersburg, by which Russia restored nearly the 
whole of the territory in the west, while China paid a large 
sum, and allowed Russia free navigation of the rivers in 
Manchuria. The treaty was signed in 1881, and approved 
by the Empress. 

The war between Japan and China in 1894 caused a re- 
newal of Russian activity. Japan, among other things, 
demanded the cession of the Liao-tung (lee-ah-oh toong) 
peninsula. Russia at once declared that it would not permit 
this, because it would mean the dismemberment of China. 
France and Germany agreed with Russia, and Japan was 
forced to submit. 

In 1896 the famous Li Hung Chang (lee hoong chahng), 
a mandarin of great influence, was sent to St. Petersburg to 
represent China at the crowning of the Czar. While he 
was there a secret treaty was made between Russia and 
China, and in the same year an arrangement was made for 
the construction of a railway through Manchuria. The 
following year Germany demanded a port in the Shan- 



ibi 



tung peninsula, named Kiao-chao (kee-ah-oh chah-oh), and 
Russia took this opportunity to seize Port Arthur, which the 
Japanese had taken after a hard fight. Toward the end of 
March, 1898, the Chinese government announced that Port 
Arthur had been leased to Russia. This completed Russia's 
occupation of Manchuria. 



STO. OF CHINA — II 



AMERICANS IN CHINA 

DO you know what name the Chinese have for us ? They 
see our flag, and so they call us Hwa-Ki (hwah-kee), 
or Flowery Flag people. Well, we need not be ashamed of 
that name ! 




American Legation 

Directly after the War of Independence, the Americans 
began to look out for trade. On Washington's Birthday 

162 



1 63 



of the year 1784, the ship Empress, commanded by Captain 
Green, left New York for Canton. She returned on May 
nth, 1785, having been one year, two months and nineteen 
days on her voyage. 

At this time saiHng vessels were traders, that is, they 
carried home products and sailed to a foreign market where 
they could secure the highest price for them. With this 
money they bought such merchandise as would fetch a 
good price at home. Ships sailing from New York first 
made for the Columbia River, where they bought furs. 
From there they visited the Sandwich Islands, which are 
known to the Chinese by the name of Tan-hiang Shan 
(tahn heeahng shahn) or " Sandalwood Islands," where 
they bought sandalwood, sharks' fins and tortoise shells. 
Then they sailed for China, where all these things brought 
a high price. After purchasing tea with the money thus 
obtained, they returned to the United States. 

The trade with China increased steadily, and several 
Americans proceeded to Canton. The wars between France 
and England proved of great assistance to American com- 
merce. British ships were open to capture by French 
privateers, whereas American ships could safely proceed 
across any sea. At first the government at Washington did 
not think of protecting American citizens and interests in 
China, and for many years the United States government 
had no dealings with China. This gave the Chinese the 
idea that they could do with Americans as they pleased. 

In 1819 the American ship Emily lay at anchor in a Chinese 
port, when one of the sailors, named Terranova, threw 
a jar at a Chinese woman, and she fell overboard. It was 
afterwards proved that her own haste and carelessness were 



164 

the direct cause. The district judge of Pwan-yu (pwahn- 
yoo) came on board, bringing with him a number of mer- 
chants and Chinese to act as interpreters, and the sailor 
was tried before this court. The American merchants, who 
had come to watch the trial, saw that the so-called inter- 
preters did not understand the accused man, and they asked 
that Dr. Morrison, a fine Chinese scholar, who was present, 
should act as interpreter. This request was refused. The 
American merchants felt that they must submit to the laws 
of the country, with the result that the sailor was taken 
from the ship, sent to Canton and there strangled. 

Although without government protection, our merchants 
increased our trade rapidly, but it was not until after the 
close of the first war between England and China that the 
United States made itself officially known to the Chinese 
government. Shortly after this so-called Opium War, Hon. 
Caleb Cushing was sent to China to make a treaty. This 
was signed at Wang-hia (wahng-heeah), July 3, 1844. In 
this treaty it was distinctly stated that our citizens should 
have all accommodations for churches, hospitals, and ceme- 
teries. It was owing to this that missionaries secured the 
right to preach the Gospel in China. 

It may interest you to hear what a prominent Chinese, 
Seu-ki-yu (shoo-kee-yoo) has to say about George Wash- 
ington. He devoted some time to a study of what he called 
'■' the barbarian countries," and in 1848 published a work 
in two volumes, entitled " A General Glance at the Cguntries 
by the Sea." After describing the United States, he goes 
on to speak of our first President. 

" Washington was born in the ninth year of the Emperor 
Yung Ching. His father died when he was but ten years 



i65 



of age. He was educated by his mother. While yet young 
he showed himself very intelligent in regard to civil and 
military affairs. He had great personal strength and 
courage." 

Seu gives a good description of the events of Washing- 
ton's life, and then expresses his admiration for him : 

" In an address to Congress, Washington said that it 
would be a criminal ambition to obtain a kingdom for one's 
self, to leave to one's children. Honesty should distinguish 
those who are to be raised to this position in the nation. 
Surely, Washington was an extraordinary man. His suc- 
cesses as a soldier were more rapid than those of Shing 
and Kwang, and in personal courage he was greater than 
Tsau-pi (tsow-pee) and Liu-pang (leeoo-pahng). With 
the two-edged sword (of justice) he restored order over an 
area of several thousand miles. He refused to receive any 
reward in money. He worked to found a government by 
election. Patriotism like this is to be praised under the whole 
heavens. Truly, it reminds us of our own three great 
ancient dynasties. In conducting the government he fos- 
tered virtue, he avoided war, and succeeded in making his 
country greater than all other nations. I have seen his pic- 
ture. His face shows great power of mind. Who does 
not agree that he has the character of an extraordinary 
man ?" 

In 1856 the second war broke out between China and 
England and France. President Buchanan sent Hon. Wil- 
liam B. Reed to China to watch events and, if possible, to 
act as peacemaker. Mr. Reed arrived at Hongkong in the 
United States steamer Minnesota, on November 7, 1857. 
He found that he could do nothing, so the following year 



1 66 



he went north, and signed a new treaty with China on 
June 1 8. 

The British and French had taken the Taku (tah-koo) 
forts, at the mouth of the Pei-ho River, and then moved 
rapidly toward Tientsin, followed by the Minister of the 
United States. Two commissioners from the Emperor came 
to that city, and a new treaty was made with England and 
France. 

Early in the summer of 1859 the Minister of the United 
States, as v\^ell as those of England, France, and Russia, 
arrived again at the mouth of the Pei-ho, to exchange the 
treaties. Two Chinese commissioners made their appear- 
ance, and told the ministers that the mouth of the Pei-ho 
was closed, and that, although they would be received at 
Peking, they must go there by another route. The Ministers 
of the United States and of Russia did so, and exchanged 
the treaties at the capital. 

In 1867, Anson Burlingame was the United States Min- 
ister at Peking. During his six years' residence in that cap- 
ital he had made himself respected and liked by the Chinese 
mandarin§, and Prince Kung (koong), the head of the 
Foreign Ofhce, asked Mr. Burlingame to visit the United 
States and Europe as Ambassador of China to obtain new 
treaties. Burlingame accepted, and left Peking on the 
25th of November, 1867. He was accompanied by two 
high mandarins, with J. McLeary Brown and M. Deschamps 
as secretaries. There was some danger on the road from 
Peking to Tientsin, as the party was attacked by mounted 
robbers. From Tientsin they proceeded to Shanghai, and 
took the steamer for San Francisco. It was May i^ 
before the party arrived at Washington, D. C. 



167 

William H. Seward, then Secretary of State, agreed upon 
a new treaty with China. This treaty was signed at Wash- 
ington on the 28th of July, 1868. 

The members of the embassy visited Niagara Falls, Bos- 
ton, the City of New York, and other places of interest, and 
were well entertained. From the United States they went 
to England, where at first they were received coldly, but 
afterwards Mr. Burlingame succeeded in making a treaty. 
France, Prussia, and other European powers did the same. 

When the news was sent across the Pacific of the dis- 
covery of gold in California in 1849, large numbers of 
Chinese came to the Pacific Coast. -At first they were well 
received, but as more and more of them kept coming, there 
arose opposition to Chinese labor. After California was 
admitted as a State in the Union (1850), this opposition 
increased so much that Congress made a law forbidding 
the entrance of Chinese laborers into the United States. 
Since, however. Congress has no power to make laws which 
come into conflict with a treaty, an embassy was sent to 
Peking, asking that the treaty be changed so that the United 
States might regulate Chinese immigration. To this the 
Chinese government readily agreed. 



WHAT THE BRITISH ASK OF CHINA 

IN Great Britain only a small part of the people are en- 
gaged in agriculture. Food of all kinds, therefore, has 
to be bought from other countries. Great Britain, how- 
ever, having rich mines of coal and iron, is a great manu- 
facturing country, that is, what are called raw materials, 
such as cotton, wool, hides, etc., are here made up into 
cotton and woolen goods, shoes, etc. Great Britain thus 
obtains food and raw materials from other countries, and in 
return sends to foreign markets her manufactured articles. 
The British merchant, therefore, is always looking out for 
a new market, that is, for countries where the people will 
buy his goods. He thinks that better and cheaper goods are 
made in England than anywhere else, and he is satisfied if 
he is given the same opportunities to trade as other nations. 
England asks of China a free market for trade, or what is 
called " The Open Door." 

When British ships first appeared in the Pacific Ocean, 
the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch were all equally 
anxious to trade with the Asiatic people. Each nation 
wanted this trade for itself, and whenever two or more 
ships of different nations came together, there was sure 
to be a fight. The victors killed the crew of the other ship 
and plundered it. Sometimes they burned the vessel, or 
kept it, if they had men enough to sail it. Whenever a ship 

i68 



169 



was fortunate enough to get back to Europe with a cargo 
the owners made an enormous profit. Still, there was always 
the danger that their vessels might be burned or captured. 
A number of rich merchants formed a company for mutual 
protection, and asked the government to give them a charter. 
The government agreed, and the association was known as 
the East India Company. The company was permitted to 
make treaties with Indian princes; to build forts, and to 
hire soldiers ; to take cannon on their ships, and to fight 
when it was necessary. In return, the company agreed to 
allow the government the use of its ships in case of war. 

In the year 161 5 the East India Company sent some ships 
to Amoy to open an agency, or factory, as it was called at 
that time, and twelve years later an effort was made to 
open a market at Canton. In 1637 ^ fleet, under command 
of Captain Weddell, was sent to China, and anchored off 
Macao (mah-cow). The captain sent some of his officers 
to Canton. When they returned, they said so much of the 
wealth of that city that Weddell was anxious to take his 
ships there to trade. He sailed up the river as far as the 
forts, and sent a written request to the Chinese commandant, 
asking permission to go on to Canton. The commandant 
replied that he would answer in a week. But the>Portu- 
guese, who did not like to see the British secure a share of 
their trade, influenced the Chinese against them, and the 
commandant thought that it was best to drive them away. 
So he fired upon one of the ships' boats, which was returning 
to the vessel with drinking water for the sailors. 

This made Weddell very angry, so he weighed anchor, 
took his ships up the river, anchored off the forts and the 
castle, and fired a broadside to such effect that in two or 



170 



three hours the Chmese had had enough. The British landed 
some men. and the Chinese soldiers ran away without trying 
to defend the castle. The sailors entered and hoisted the 
British flag. All the guns were taken from the forts and 
sent aboard, and the castle was set on fire. Two large 
junks, or trading vessels, were captured, and the captain 



/ ^ 


/ 


y;' L 


Ih. i^ 


•-^ 


fcia^S 


.-»■ 


1 


* \ 





Native Sailboats 

of a smaller one was hired to take a letter to the Governor 
of Canton. In this letter Weddell complained of the action 
of the commandant. The governor told Weddell that if he 
would return the guns and the junks, he might have per- 
mission to trade. Weddell agreed, and, loading his ships 
with Chinese goods, he sailed away. 



171 

Although the EngHsh had obtained permission to trade 
at Canton, there was no love or friendship between them 
and the Chinese. Chinese merchants did not understand 
the English way of doing business, and the English did not 
try to learn the Chinese way. The East India Company 
cared only to make money, and did not always deal justly, 
as the following instance will show : 

Among the merchants employed by the Company was a 
man named Flint, who had studied the Chinese language 
so that he could read and write it. In 1759 the Company's 
factory at Ningpo was destroyed and Flint was sent there 
to have it rebuilt. When he arrived at Ningpo, he found 
that the governor had forbidden the Chinese to have any- 
thing to do with foreigners. Seeing that he could do noth- 
ing there, Flint went on to Tientsin, and from there ad- 
dressed a complaint to the Emperor. When the Emperor 
received it, he appointed a high officer to go with Flint back 
to Canton, and to make a report. When they arrived at 
Canton, Flint returned to the factory, where he was told 
that everything had been settled. 

Flint's going to Tientsin had angered the governor, who 
would have been severely punished by the Emperor, if he 
had not bribed the officer with a large sum of money to 
make a false report. Flint, accordingly, was called to the 
governor's ofhce, where he was taken prisoner, after he had 
been struck repeatedly. He was then sent to a place near 
Macao, where he was kept in jail for two years and a half. 
The poor man, who was innocept, and who had only tried 
to do his duty, wrote to the Company that he would be set 
free if $1,250 was paid to the governor. But the Company 
refused to pay this sum for his release. 



1/2 



The Chinese, in their deaHngs with foreigners, act upon 
the following rule : " The Barbarians are like beasts, and 
can not be ruled on the same principles as the civilized 
Chinese. If anyone should try to control them by the 
great principles of reason, it would lead to nothing but 
confusion. The ancient emperors well understood .this, and, 
therefore, ruled the barbarians by misrule ; therefore, to 
rule the barbarians by misrule is the true and best way to 
rule them." 

A recent English writer says : " The Chinese certainly 
saw but little of the better side of the strangers from the 
West, whether hailing from Europe or America. To them 
the foreigner was a man thinking of nothing but gain by 
trade, gain at any price ; a coarse and vicious-tempered being, 
with no appreciation of Chinese philosophy, or literature, or 
history, and not even the most elementary acquaintance with 
Chinese etiquette." ' 

An American author, who lived many years in China, 
speaking of the East India Company, says : " During that 
long time, even if they had only paid an interpreter in their 
agency, who, besides attending to his office duties, could 
have translated books on geography, astronomy, and other 
sciences into Chinese, the Chinese w^ould have a far better 
opinion of the foreigners than now." " 

The Chinese complained constantly of the conduct of the 
sailors when ashore. In those days a voyage to China some- 
times lasted more than a year. All that time the sailors 
were confined in the ship ; they had to be up at all hours of 
the day or night, and in all sorts of weather, and their food 

^ China in Transformation, A. R. Colquhoun ; Harper & Bros. 
^ The Middle Kingdom, S. Wells Williams ; Chas. Scribner's Sons. 



173 

was ver}^ poor. Ship biscuits, or hard tack as it is called, 
with salt beef and pork, was all that they received. When 
these men, at the end of a voyage, were allowed to go 
ashore, they were often quarrelsome and hard to control. 
This caused many quarrels between the Chinese officers and 
the British. 

The general law in China is : " An eye for an eye, a 
tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." That is, if one .person 
kills another, the man. who committed the crime must die. 
Yet the laws in China are not cruel, for every sentence of 
death must be submitted to the Emperor, who alone can 
order an execution. 

In 1784, the Lady Hughes, a British ship, at anchor near 
where the city of Hongkong now stands, fired a salute, and 
a Chinese was accidentally killed by a ball carelessly left 
in one of the guns. The Chinese officers demanded that the 
gunner should be surrendered to them, but this the British 
refused to do. Mr. Smith, the supercargo, or merchant, of 
the ship, shortly afterwards went ashore, when he was 
seized and put in prison. The Chinese refused to set him 
free unless the captain gave up the gunner. The gunner 
accordingly was sent into the city, where he was arrested at 
once, and Mr. Smith was released. The gunner was tried in 
a Chinese court, although he could not understand a word of 
the language, nor did the judge understand English. He 
was kept in jail six weeks, when the order arrived from the 
Emperor and the unfortunate man was strangled. 

Another instance shows how Chinese officers evade the 
law. In 1807 a party of sailors were jeered at by a mob of 
Chinese at Canton ; a scuffle followed, and one of the Chinese 
was killed by a blow from the fist of a sailor. The Lion, 



174 



a British man-of-war, being in port, the captain called a 
court. The man who struck the blow could not be found, 
but one of the sailors, named Edward Sheen, was placed 
under arrest. This satisfied the Chinese until the ship was 
going to sail. They then demanded that the man be given 
up to them, but the captain of the Lion refused to surrender 
him. When the ship had sailed away, the Chinese officers 
sent a report to Peking. They said that the sailor had 
opened a window and accidentally dropped a stick upon the 
head of the deceased, and so killed him. They added that 
they had examined the sailor, and fined him twenty dollars to 
pay the funeral expenses. This shows that the Chinese 
sometimes have a lively imagination and little regard for 
the truth. 

During all the years that the East India Company traded 
at Canton there were complaints on both sides, and constant 
misunderstandings. The charter expired in 1834, and was 
not renewed. After that British trade in China was to be 
managed by an officer appointed by the Crown, and Lord 
Napier was appointed chief superintendent. 



FIRST WAR BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN 
AND CHINA 

LORD Napier had no easy task before him. The British 
government had ordered him "to report by letter to the 
governor;" to be careful not to hurt the Chinese in their 
feelings, and to try to open new ports for trade. 

Lii (lee), the governor or viceroy, did not, and could not, 
understand that it was possible for any nation on earth to 
think itself the equal of China; nor could he understand 
how any king or emperor dared to call himself the equal 
of the Son of Heaven, All intercourse with the " outside 
barbarians " had been conducted upon this understanding. 
Lord Napier, on the other hand, would not humble the King 
of England, whom he represented, and he determined to 
follow out his orders, just as the Chinese governor was fully 
prepared to execute the orders from Peking. 

Lord Napier upon his arrival at Canton sent a letter to 
the governor, which the governor would not receive. Lii 
thought it outrageous that a barbarian should dare to send a 
letter to one who represented the Emperor. He was more 
angry still when he heard that the letter was inscribed Ta 
Ying Kwoh (tah ying kwoh), the " Great English Nation." 
Hence, from the very first, Lord Napier could not carry out 
his orders, and he finally withdrew to Macao, where he died. 

The most profitable trade at Canton, at this time, was 

175 



176 



in opium. As early as the year 1800 the government at 
Peking had forbidden its use and importation. But the 
profits from its sale were so large that the people resorted 
to smuggling, that is, bringing it into the country unknown 
to the officers, and so opium continued to be imported in 
large quantities. It is certain that many Chinese officers 
whose duty it was to prevent opium from coming into the 
country profited by this smuggling. 




Smoking Opium 

This evil was seriously considered by the government. 
Some officers favored making laws under which the drug 
could be brought into China, but making it so expensive that 
the people would not be able to buy it ; other officers thought 
that it should not be brought into the country at all. 



177 

Captain Elliot, the British superintendent of trade, who 
succeeded Lord Napier, was personally opposed to the trade 
in opium, and hoped that it might be regulated by law. But 
the British merchants were unwilling to give up the profit- 
able trade in the drug, and Captain Elliot's attitude brought 
down upon him the abuse of certain English newspapers. 
The government at Peking now took a firm stand. 

In February, 1837, Captain Elliot wrote to Admiral Capel, 
m India, asking him to send a man-of-war to China. The 
sloop-of-war Raleigh arrived, and was sent to Foo-chow to 
secure the release of the crew of the opium brig Fairy, who 
had been detained there for some months. This was done. 
In the fall of the same year the Admiral received orders to 
proceed to China. 

The opium was carried to China by British merchants, 
and sold to the receiving-ships at Lin-tin, where the Chinese 
officers could not come, and from there sold to the smug- 
glers. The governor received orders from Peking to stop 
this, and he so informed Captain Elliot. The superintendent 
sent word to this effect to London, but received no satis- 
factory reply. 

The government at Peking had now firmly decided to 
suppress the opium trade, and the governor of Canton re- 
ceived orders which he dared not disobey. In order to 
frighten the foreigners at Canton, he ordered a Chinese 
merchant convicted of opium selling to be executed in front 
of the factories. A large crowd collected, and the foreigners 
who tried to drive these people away were themselves at- 
tacked. 

Captain Elliot arrived the same evening, and urged the 
British merchants to cease the opium trade. He wrote to 

STO. OF CHINA — 12 



178 

the British at Canton, saying that "this course of traffic 
was rapidly staining the British character with deep dis- 
grace." The government at Peking had determined that 
the opium trade should cease, and sent Lin Tseh-su (lin 
tsay-soo) to Canton to execute the law. He arrived on the 
loth of March, 1839. 

On the 1 8th of that month the new governor notified the 
foreigners to give up every pound of opium in the store- 
ships, and to give bonds that they would bring no more to 
China, on penalty of death. The foreigners met at the 
Chamber of Commerce, and replied that they would send 
a final answer in four days, and added " that the foreigners 
at Canton have almost agreed that they will have nothing 
further to do with the opium trade." 

At ten o'clock some Chinese merchants came and said that 
if the opium was not given up at once they would all be 
beheaded. The foreigners delivered 1,037 chests, to be given 
to the governor. In the afternoon Lin sent for Mr. Dent, 
a leading British merchant, to meet him at the city gates. 
Dent replied that he would come, if the governor would give 
him a safe-warrant, that is, a paper declaring that he would 
be permitted to return. The next morning another order 
came for Dent. The foreigners held a meeting at Dent's 
house, and it was resolved that he should not go without 
a safe-warrant. The Chinese officers, however, came to 
Dent's house, and he told them that if they wanted to take 
him by force he could not resist, but he would not go with- 
out a safe-warrant. 

It is certain that the governor intended to hold Dent as 
a hostage for the delivery of the opium, and the stopping of 
the trade in that drug. Captain Elliot sent a note to Lin 



179 

asking him if he meant to make war. He also ordered all 
British ships, opium as well as others, to go to Hongkong, 
and to prepare to resist any attack by the Chinese. 

Lin at once ordered a fleet of armed boats upon the river 
to prevent the foreigners from leaving Canton, and ordered 
all their native servants to leave them. This was done, and 
when evening came, only the foreigners, numbering about 
two hundred and seventy-five in all, were left in the factory. 
Guards were placed around it, and all was excitement. 

On the 25th most of the foreign merchants signed a paper 
promising never to deal in opium again. Captain Elliot 
then requested that their servants be permitted to return. 
The governor replied that this could not be done until the 
opium was given up. No native was allowed to bring food 
or water; no letters could be sent or received. The for- 
eigners were prisoners m their own houses. 

Lin then sent a letter to Captain Elliot, urging him to 
give up the opium, and on the 27th of March the British 
superintendent ordered all English merchants to deliver to 
the governor all the opium they had, and making his gov- 
ernment responsible for their losses. This was done, and 
20,283 chests of opium were given up to the Chinese, who 
then allowed some of the native servants to return, and sent 
in a supply of sheep, pigs, chickens, and other provisions. 

The opium was destroyed by orders from Peking. Trenches 
were dug, and the opium, mixed with lime and salt water, 
was drawn off into a creek. One of the Chinese, who was 
caught stealing a small quantity, was beheaded on the spot. 

The year 1839 passed, and angry feelings continued on 
both sides. Fresh cargoes of opium, which had left India 
before these events were known, continued to arrive, and 



i8o 



the merchants sold them to those of other nations, so that 
they were carried by vessels not under the British flag. 
More trouble occurred as the result of a fight between some 
British sailors and the Chinese, in which one of the latter 
was killed. Captain Elliot and the British merchants had 
withdrawn to Hongkong. Lin saw that they were too 
strong to be driven away, and he ordered the people not to 
sell them any provisions. Several small fights now occurred, 
but there was, as yet, no war. 

When war was declared by England in 1840, the British 
government declared that it was " to obtain reparation for 
insults and injuries offered to the British superintendent and 
subjects; to obtain payment for the losses which the mer- 
chants had suffered under threats of violence, and to get 
security that persons and property trading with China should 
in future be protected from msult and injury, and trade 
maintained upon a proper footing."' 

The war vv^hich followed is known as the Opium War. It 
was said at the time that the Chinese believed that the 
English fought only because they wanted to sell opium. 
But that was not so. The time had come when the Chinese 
must be taught that their Tien-tsz' was not the ruler of the 
whole earth, and that there was another civilization besides 
that of Confucius. 

The Chinese, who had felt that war would follow these 
troubles, had begun to construct and repair forts. The 
English forces under Sir Gordon Bremer arrived off Macao, 
June 22, 1841. Whenever the Chinese were behind intrench- 
ments they fought well, but they could not face a hand-to- 
hand battle. After taking the Island of Chu-san (choo- 
sahn), the English fleet sailed for the Pei-ho River, where 



181 



it anchored, August nth. Ki-shen (kee-shen), the governor 
of Pe-chih-H, received a letter from Admiral Elliot, and 
asked for ten days delay, that it might be placed before the 
Emperor. This was granted, and the fleet sailed to Liao- 
tung to secure provisions. They returned to the Pei-ho on 
the 27th, and on the 30th a meeting took place between 
Ki-shen and Admiral Elliot. After several meetings it 
was arranged that Ki-shen should meet Admiral ElHot again 
at Canton. The fleet sailed for Chu-san on the 15th of 
September. 

The ships arrived off Macao on November 29th, and Ad- 
miral Elliot at once sent a steamer to the forts with a 
message for Ki-shen. The steamer was fired upon, but Ki- 
shen apologized. It was found that no terms could be 
agreed upon, and Admiral Elliot moved up the river and 
took two forts. Ki-shen then proposed a truce, and after 
several meetings terms of peace were agreed upon. They 
included the cession of the island and harbor of Hongkong 
to the British, the payment of six million dollars, direct 
intercourse with Peking upon equal footing, and the resump- 
tion of trade at Canton. 

The Emperor at Peking was very angry when this treaty 
was sent to him, and would not sign it. On the 27th of 
January he issued orders to resume the war. On the 26th 
of February the forts protecting Canton were attacked and 
taken by the English, and on March 3rd the fleet was off 
Canton. On the 20th a truce was agreed to, and trade was 
resumed. But in May the Chinese intended treachery. Ad- 
miral Elliot discovered this, and on the 21st notified all 
foreigners to go aboard ship. When the Chinese attacked 
the factory, they found only two Americans, named Morse 



1 82 



and Coolidge, and a boat's crew of the American ship 
Morrison. They were taken prisoners. 

On the 24th the land and naval forces under Sir Hugh 
Gough and Sir Fleming Senhouse arrived from Hongkong 
and began to besiege the city. The factories were taken, and 
Mr. Morse and the other American prisoners set free, after 
an unpleasant experience of sixty hours. Before the attack 
upon the city could be made, the Chinese agreed to pay 
$6,000,000, and withdrew their troops sixty miles from 
the city. Two days after the truce was signed, a force 
of nearly fifteen thousand Chinese, who called themselves 
" patriot soldiers," advanced upon 500 British. Sir Hugh 
Gough ordered an attack, and soon the army of 15,000 was 
flying before the handful of foreigners. A party of Sepoys, 
or Indian troops, 90 strong, Avas attacked by a large force 
of Chinese. The Sepoys fought for three hours before they 
were relieved ; they lost only one man and fourteen wounded. 

After retaking the Island of Chu-san, the British force 
moved up the Yang tsz', and the Emperor issued orders 
to kill all the barbarians. Chinese troops were raised every- 
Vv^here, but were defeated wherever the British met them. 

On the nth of August Nanking was invested. The 
Chinese officers had made several attempts to make peace, 
to which Sir Henry Pottinger, who represented the British 
government, replied that he would meet them if they could 
show credentials, that is, papers from the Emperor showing 
that they had power to sign a treaty. On the night of the 
T4th four high mandarins, among whom was Ki-ying (kee- 
ying.), sent a letter to Sir Henry asking for a meeting in 
the morning. The Chinese and British met on the 15th, and 
the treaty of peace was discussed. 



i 



i83 



On the 29th the treaty was signed. The Chinese govern- 
ment was to pay twenty-one milhons of dollars by the end 
of 1845 ; the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and 
Shanghai were to be thrown open to British trade and resi- 
dence; the Island of Hongkong was to be ceded to the 




Chinese Mandarin and Servant 

British ; all British prisoners were to be released ; all Chinese 
in the service of the British were to be pardoned ; cor- 
respondence between the two nations was hereafter to be con- 
ducted on terms of perfect equality. On the 15th of Sep- 
tember the Emperor's ratification was received, and the war 
was ended. 



THE TAE-PING REBELLION 

IN 1853 a riot broke out in China; m a very short time it 
grew into an insurrection, and threatened to expand into 
a revolution. Before order was restored millions of people 
had perished, and many thriving towns and villages had 
become blackened ruins. It brought into prominence Li 
Hung Chang, the man who often promoted the progress of 
China, and as often opposed it. 

Siu-tshuen (see-00 tshoo-en) was born in 1813, in the 
Hwa (hwhah) district of Kwang-tung. It is situated in 
a level, fertile, rice-growing region near Canton, with the 
White Cloud Mountains on the south, and the Nan-ling 
range on the north. 

The boy's family name was Hung. Every inhabitant of 
the village where he lived was a Hung, and the village 
might Iiave been called Hungborough. Siu's father was 
a village elder. 

Would you like to see Siu's house ? It was of one story, 
built of mud in a wooden frame, and covered with tiles. 
A narrow door opened from the street into the hall, showing 
a kitchen and some sleeping rooms on either side. Opposite 
the door was a sitting room. The house was not more than 
thirty-five or forty feet deep, and twelve or fifteen wide. 

184 



i8s 



In it lived grandparents, parents, and children, a buffalo, a 
few pigs, some fowls and a couple of dogs. Still there was 
roorn enough for half-a-dozen idols, but there was no room 
left for the children to play. 

Young Siu had all the fun he wished on the edge of a 
mud hole or small pond in front of the village, used by the 
ducks, dogs, pigs and other animals as a sort of com- 
mon. When he had reached his fourth year, one of the 
older boys accidentally pushed him into the water, where 
it was beyond his depth, and he might have been drowned, 
had not another boy, seeing his queue floating, pulled him 
out. His father made him a sort of life-preserver, in the 
shape of a hollow gourd, which he fastened behind his son's 
back. When Siu showed himself in such an unusual ar- 
ticle of dress, the boys shouted " Gourd boy ! Gourd boy !" 
The child ran home, and pleaded with his father to be 
relieved of the gourd. His request was granted after a 
bamboo had been applied to his back. Siu never forgot 
that first whipping. He may not have liked it at the time, 
but in after years he always said that it did him good. 

Siu was the youngest son. The other boys were helping 
their father in the field, but Siu was to be a scholar and 
an officer. When he was seven years old his father made 
a contract with the village schoolmaster. Ting- j in, to teach 
the boy for one year, whereby he agreed to pay two dollars 
in money, fifty pounds of rice, and one and one-third pounds 
of tea, salt, lard, and lamp oil. Ting-jin was to supply the 
necessary paper, ink, and brushes. 

Ting-jin was one of the ten thousand who had passed 
the examination for the first degree, but could not ad- 
vance beyond it. He was satisfied to make his living by 



i86 



teaching as he had been taught, using the bamboo cane 
not more than he thought necessary. Siu continued to go 
to school for three years, when his mother died. 

After six months' mourning, the boy resumed his studies. 
When he was eleven years old, Ting began to tell him the 
meaning of the characters which he had committed to mem- 
ory. Siu was kept at school until he was fifteen, when his 
father needed his help in the field. 

In China everybody works, especially among the peasants, 
and Siu had to do his share. He was selected, however, 
to herd the cows and buffaloes of the village, and while 
engaged in this business he kept up his studies. 

His evident desire to learn attracted the attention of the 
elders of the Hung clan. They met, and decided to give him 
an opportunity for further study. They subscribed a small 
sum of money, sufficient for Siu's expenses. So when he was 
sixteen years old, Siu left on foot for the chief town of the 
district where he resided, and presented himself for the 
first preparatory examination. After giving his name, his 
father's, and his grandfather's, as well as his place of resi- 
dence, he was assigned a seat. There were four or five hun- 
dred boyS and men in the hall. In the evening Siu handed 
in his compositions, and among the names of the approved 
writers he was proud to hear his own. He was now a " hien 
ming," which means having a name in the village. 

Following up this success, Siu went to the chief city in 
the department, and came out a " fu ming," that is, he had 
a name in the department. But his luck left him at the 
provincial examination at Canton. He returned home with 
too much learning to earn his living by labor, and not 
enough to earn it with his brains. 



i87 

Once again the Hung clan came to Sin's assistance, and 
started a school. Thus he passed some years, and his father 
procured a wife for him. After this he opened another 
school in a village about ten miles distant, but dutifully left 
his wife at home to assist his parents. 

In 1833 Siu once more made his way to Canton to try 
to pass the examination. Arriving a few days before the 
time set, he was walking in the street, when, on passing a 
fortune teller's stand, he thought that he Avould consult him 
upon the result of his journey. He did so, and received the 
answer : — " You will succeed ; you will be ill ; my respects 
to your virtuous father." 

This answer contained both sweet and bitter, but, on the 
whole, Siu felt happy. As he was strolling along the street 
he met Liang A-fah (leeahng ah-fah), a Christian Chinese 
who was distributing tracts. Siu was much surprised to see 
his friend employed in this way, but he took several of the 
tracts without paying anything for them. 

Siu failed again in his examination, and returned home. 
He read the tracts, but not being able to understand them, 
put them on his shelf. There they remained for about ten 
years. Again Siu went to Canton, only to fail ; and when he 
returned home, he fell ill. 

Brain fever set in, and brought him to the brink of the 
grave. When he recovered, he had a vision or dream, which 
was deeply impressed upon his mind. He resumed school 
work in his own village, and in due time he presented him- 
self again at the examination hall at Canton. But he was 
doomed to disappointment. 

Soon after his return home, he was visited by a relative 
of the Li family, who, happening to see the tracts upon the 



i88 



bookshelf, asked leave to read them. When Li returned them 
he remarked that their teaching was quite different from 
that of Confucius. This remark induced Siu to read them 
again, and he became convinced that he was chosen from" 
heaven to destroy the idols, and to convert the people. Many 
believed in him, and he ordered a demon-killing sword to 
be made. 

His unbelief in Confucius caused him to lose his pupils, 
and Siu made up his mind to visit some friends in Kwang- 
si. On his way he increased his number of believers, and 
after a year he returned home and published several essays. 
Upon being told that there was a white man at Canton 
preaching almost the same doctrine, Siu went to that city 
and introduced himself to Rev. I. J. Roberts, an American 
missionary. Siu was then about thirty-four years old. After 
studying for some time, he applied for a position as assistant 
to the missionary. This request was declined, and Siu de- 
cided to visit his relatives in Kwang-si. Upon his arrival he 
found the number of his followers increased to such an ex- 
tent that he, with their help, began to destroy idols. When the 
officers prepared to punish him, he collected his men and 
began to march toward Kwang-tung. 

The weakness of the governors added to his strength, and 
he declared war upon the Manchu, calling himself Tae-Ping 
Wang, or King Of the Great Ping dynasty. He then moved 
northward, to the Yang-tsz', where he repeated his successes. 
After he had taken Nanking, he prepared to descend the 
river. An American named Ward offered to protect the 
trembling Chinese merchants at Shanghai against the Tae- 
Ping, if they would subscribe the necessary money. They 
agreed, and Ward engaged some one hundred and fifty for- 



1 89 



eigners, and went up the river to meet the rebels. Ward, 
who was recklessly daring, checked the advance of the Tae- 
Ping. With the assistance of Li Hung Chang, of whom 
you will hear later, he enlisted Chinese, and laid the 
foundation of the " Ever- Victorious Army." Always in 
the heat of the battle, he was severely wounded, and died. 
Major Gordon, a British officer, then took command of 




West Gate, Nanking 

the imperial army, and gradually closed in on Siu. At 
last the Tae-Ping surrendered, and the leaders were be- 
headed by order of Li Hung Chang. 

This rebellion cost China millions in men and money. It 
should have taught the value of discipline, but as soon as 
peace was restored the old careless order of things was 
continued. 



1 



HOW A POOR BOY MADE A NAME 

IN 1842 a fourteen-year-old boy arrived at Macao from 
England. His name was Harry Parkes, and he was an 
orphan. He had taken the long journey from England to 
China in order to join his sister, who was living there as 
the wife of a missionary, the Reverend Mr. Lockhart. 

After he had arrived, his brother-in-law gave him an op- 
portunity to study Chinese. Harry studied hard, so hard that 
when the first war with England broke out, he was engaged 
to go with the fleet and help in the buying of provisions. 
By that time Harry knew enough Chinese to make himself 
understood by the country people. 

Of course, Harry thought it fun to see the fighting, and 

was only sorry sometimes that he could not carry a gun. He 

was permitted to be present when Sir Henry Pottinger met 

■ 
the Chinese to agree upon terms of peace; and he was also 

present when the treaty was signed. 

When Hongkong was opened to. the British, Harry was 
sent there as interpreter in the service of the government. 
He kept up his studies, and did so well that he very soon 
understood the Chinese characters. 

After Harry had learned Chinese well, he was appointed 
consul. He then secured leave of absence, and visited Eng- 
land, where he married. When he returned to China with 

190 



191 

his wife he stopped at Siam, and there made a treaty with the 
king on behah" of England. 

When Harry came to Canton as consul he found things 
in a bad condition. The Chinese government would not 
carry out the terms of the treaty. Foreigners were not al- 
lowed to enter the city, and were treated as " outside bar- 
barians " and slaves. Parkes was not the man to submit to 
such treatment. He wrote a strong letter to the governor, and 
when he received an insolent reply, he placed the matter in 
the hands of the British admiral. 

The admiral, Sir Michael Seymour, made his way to the 
Yamen of Governor Yeh, but did not succeed in seeing the 
governor. In the year 1856 another difficulty arose. The 
Chinese seized a " lorcha," or schooner, flying the British 
flag, and this was made a pretext to begin a second war. 

The English fleet under Admiral Seymour had taken some 
of the forts on the river at Canton, and on the 29th of 
December, 1857, had bombarded and captured that city. 
The Chinese officers fled, and Harry Parkes immediately 
took measures to maintain law and order. For two years 
Canton had a just and reasonable government, which the 
Chinese people of that city appreciated. 

Lord Elgin was appointed by the English government to 
go to China, and try to arrange terms for a peace that would 
be lasting. The British understood how hard it was for the 
Son of Heaven at Peking to give up the idea that he was 
the ruler of the whole world, and to receive the ambassadors 
of other nations as his equals. But the British felt that if 
trade with China was to continue, it would be necessary 
to transact business at Peking, and not at one of the provin- 
cial capitals. 



192 

There was an alliance at this time between England and 
France, and the two countries decided to act together in 
forcing China to respect the treaties. 

The combined fleets of England and France sailed north 
to the Pei-ho River. Two Chinese officers were sent to 
meet the British and French ambassadors, but when their 
papers were examined it was found that they had no power 
to make treaties. A letter was sent to the Emperor that, if 




(Copyright, 1899, by J. C. Hemment.) 
§ Taku Forts 

no higher officers were sent, the Taku forts at the entrance 
of the river would be taken. When no answer came to this 
letter, the forts were attacked and taken, after two hours hard 
fighting, in August, i860. The British and French troops 
then moved rapidly upon Tientsin, which they captured. In 
spite of the protests of the Emperor, a land force of the 
allies now advanced on Peking. 

What was our friend Harry Parkes doing all this time? 
He had his hands full at Canton. But when the British 



I 



193 



government determined to send an army inland, a man 
was needed who understood China and the Chinese, and 
Harry Parkes was ordered to go with Lord Elgin as in- 
terpreter. 

An immense army under Seng-ko-ling-sing lay between 
Tientsin and the capital. The British and French advanced, 
driving the Chinese before them, and when they were nearly 
half-way, a flag of truce was sent by the Chinese, who 
asked for a meeting to arrange terms of peace. Harry 
Parkes and some Sepoys were sent forward to find quarters 
for the ambassadors. After making all arrangements, Harry 
saw that it was too late to return to camp that night. The 
following day he and his companions, among whom was 
the correspondent of the London Times, were riding back 
to their camp, when Harry noticed a band of Chinese horse- 
men galloping toward them. Before they could do any- 
thing, they were surrounded and taken prisoners. They 
were dragged before a Chinese officer, probably Seng-ko- 
hng-sing himself, and ordered to kow-tow. Harry refused 
to do so, and said that he was there under a flag of truce, 
and that the British would punish them severely. After 
the Chinese officers had consulted together, the prisoners 
were placed into covered carts and taken to Peking. At 
last the carts stopped, and, stiff and sore, they were ordered 
to get out. They did so, and Harry almost gave up hope 
when he read : "Board of Punishment " upon the building 
where the carts had stopped. They were taken in and put 
into a filthy room, occupied by criminals and lepers. After 
being kept in this place for some days, Harry was brought 
before some Chinese officers. He offended these officers deeply 
when, referring to England's Queen, he gave her the title 

STO. OF CHINA — I3 



194 

which the Chinese thought belonged only to their Emperor. 
They used threats to make him confess that his Queen was 
of a lower rank, but Harry held his ground. He was taken 
back to prison, and loaded with chains. 

After being brought several times before the officers, and 
maintaining the same brave attitude, he was asked if he 
would write a letter to Lord Elgin, asking him to stop the 
advance upon Peking. He replied that he could not do so. 
He was threatened with death if he refused, and he an- 
swered that if he was put to death, the British would surely 
avenge him. At last, after one of these examinations, he 
was taken to better quarters, and his chains were removed. 

Lord Elgin had, of course, missed his interpreter, and, 
suspecting treachery, had broken off the negotiations, and 
notified the Chinese government that, if anything happened 
to Harry Parkes, he would hold that government responsible. 
The British and French defeated Seng-ko-ling-sing, and 
marched upon Peking. Hsien-Feng, the emperor, fled, and 
once -more Harry was called before the officers. 

When they saw that they could not persuade him to do 
anything but his duty, they told him that they would send 
him out "of Peking, but Harry refused to go without his 
companions. A few days later a covered cart was brought 
to the door. He and the others were put in, and carried 
away. After a long ride, they were ordered out, and found 
that they were in sight of the British camp. 

Harry learned soon afterwards that he owed his escape to 
Prince Kung, who had managed to send him out of Peking 
fifteen minutes before the time when orders would ar- 
rive from the Emperor to put him and his companions 
to death. 



195 

With their guns trained upon the walls of Peking, and 
one of the gates of the capital in their possession, the am- 
bassadors demanded and obtained the right to reside at 
Peking and to be received by the Emperor without kow- 
towing. Other concessions were made : new ports were to 
be opened to foreigners, — Chefoo and Tientsin in the 
north, New-chwang in Manchuria, Swatow on the south 
coast of China, and two in the Island of Formosa. Mis- 
sionaries were to have the right to live in any part of the 
eighteen provinces, and all foreigners were to be free to 
travel through China with a passport. In addition to this, 
China was to pay the cost of the war. 

To punish the Chinese for their treachery, the Summer 
Palace was burned down before the treaty was signed, as 
a sign that they had been defeated. A good many people 
thought that this was wrong. A Russian writer says : " The 
opinion that during the last Anglo-French war with China 
the Europeans, and not the Chinese, were defeated, is uni- 
versal throughout the whole of Inner Asia, wherever we 
traveled. Certainly, to the Asiatic mind, an enemy who 
appears beneath the walls of a hostile city and does not 
destroy it, is no victor, but rather the defeated party. The 
Chinese government took advantage of this circumstance 
to spread the report among their faithful subjects of their 
victory over the Europeans. Yet they can scarcely have 
suppressed the knowledge of the destruction of the Em- 
peror's summer palace, and that just act of the English 
chiefs, which caused such an unreasonable indignation, finds 
a new justification in the circumstances here stated." ^ 

'From Kulja Arcoss the Tien-Shan to Lob-Nor; Col. N. Prejev- 
alsky ; Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London. 



196 

Queen Victoria admired Harry Parkes' loyalty and cour- 
age. He was knighted, and in 1863 was sent to Japan as 
Minister of Great Britain. No man ever did more for 
Japan as well as for England than Sir Harry during the 
eighteen years of his residence in Tokyo. He was then 
made Minister to Peking, where he died. His body was 
taken to England, and buried in Westminster Abbey. A 
statue of him was erected at Shanghai. 

Several years after Parkes" death a foreigner was trav- 
eling in the interior of China in a hired boat. He was sur- 
prised to notice that, wherever he stopped, mandarins came 
and kow-towed before him, and sent presents. At last he 
asked the owner of the boat the reason for this. The man 
pointed to a dirty little flag with some Chinese characters 
on it, that was hung out on the boat, and said that it was 
a first-class flag. He had painted on the flag the charac- 
ters by which Sir Harry Parkes was known in China, and, 
although he had been dead for some time, his name still 
inspired deep respect in the Chinese." 



LI HUNG CHANG 



OF all the Chinese officers, not one is so well known in 
America or Europe as the man whose name appears 
at the head of this chapter. He was born in Hu-nan in the 
year 1818, and was one of those few who successfully passed 

the three examinations. 
His parents belonged to 
the middle class, and his 
rise was certainly not due 
to the corrupt use of 
money. 

He first attracted 
notice during the Tae- 
Ping rebellion by his 
great courage. At a time 
when every official sent 
to meet the rebels dis- 
played arrant cowardice, 
Li Hung Chang showed 
great personal daring. 
He was soon convinced that European discipline and guns 
were better than the twenty-century-old tactics of China, 
and it was he who first engaged Ward and afterwards 
Gordon, to lead the imperial troops in the Tae-Ping re- 

197 




Li Hung Chang 



198 

bellion. Thus, when comparatively a young man, he was 
brought into contact with foreigners. He studied them 
closely, more, however, to find out their weak points, than 
in order to profit by their experience. His first real lesson 
of the difference between a foreign gentleman and a Chinese 
nearly cost him his life. 

Gordon, or " Chinese Gordon," as he is best known, had 
so hemmed in the chiefs of the Tae-Pings that no escape 
was possible. He was unwilling to shed unnecessary blood, 
and, knowing that desperate men will do desperate things, 
he received their surrender, promising that their lives would 
be spared. The chiefs were invited by Li Hung Chang 
to his houseboat. There were nine of them, and, trusting in 
Gordon's word, they came. Soon after nine headless bodies 
were seen floating down the river. When Gordon heard of 
this miu^'der he hunted for Li for a whole day with a loaded 
revolver, but he could not find him. Gordon was so indignant 
that, if he had found Li, he would have killed him on the 
spot. 

But Li kept out of his way, and, thinking to appease him, 
asked the Emperor to make Gordon a high Chinese of- 
ficer, and to reward him with a large sum of money. The 
Emperor agreed, and sent two high officers with 50,000 
taels (about $75,000) to Gordon. When they arrived and 
made their business known to him, he was so angry at them 
for thinking that money would satisfy his feeling of honor, 
that he caned the astonished officers out of his house, and 
had the money thrown out after them. Li Hung Chang 
afterwards pleaded that he had not given instructions to 
Gordon to pledge his word to the Tae-Ping chiefs. But 
Gordon replied that he acted for Li Hung Chang, and 



199 

that his word must not be broken. It was many years before 
Gordon saw Li Hung Chang again. 

As you have read in the last chapter, tlie British and 
French had compelled the government at Pekmg to admit 
foreign ambassadors to the capital, and to the presence of 
the Tien-tsz' without kow-towing. Hsien-Feng, the emperor 
at that time, had fled to Yeh-ho or Hot Springs, vi^here he 
had a summer palace. He did not return to the capital, 
but died there the following year. (1861.) The Empress, 
his widow, had a little baby daughter; but the Chinese do 
not want girls on the throne. Another of Hsien-Feng's 
wives had a three-year-old son, and he was the heir. Some 
of the Chinese officers wanted to kidnap the boy, so that 
they could rule until he became of age. But the mother 
heard of the plot, and, widi the Empress and her son, fled 
to Peking, where they sought the help of the late Emperor's 
brother, Prince Kung, the same who had saved the life of 
Harry Parkes. Prince Kung began an investigation, v^^ith 
the result that the treacherous officers were arrested and 
beheaded. The little boy had been proclaimed Emperor 
under the name of " Fortunate Union." Soon after, the 
widowed Empress and the Emperor's mother were estab- 
lished in the immense imperial palace at Peking, called the 
Purple Forbidden City. By Chinese law the baby boy 
belonged to the Empress, but the mother would not give him 
up. It was, therefore, agreed that the two ladies should 
be joint guardians of the boy, and act together as regents 
until he was of age. The boy's title was then changed to 
Tung-Chill (toong-chee), which means " United Rule." 
The Dowager -Empress was proclaimed Empress of the 
East, and the mother of the boy received the title of Tsze 



200 



Hsi An (tsay hsee ahn), or "Mother of the Sovereign." 
Soon after she received another title, that of Empress of the 
West. 

You will notice that the mother of the boy Tung-Chih, 
in acting as she did, defied the laws of China. In China 
she had no real standing. The law gave her child to the 
widow of the Emperor. To obtain the position she did 
shows what a strong-minded woman this Tsze Hsi An was, 
even at that time, more than forty years ago. She had 
not the least education, could not even read or write, for 
Chinese girls are not taught that way. Thus, at a time 
when China was entering upon a new chapter of its history, 
it was a woman who determined much of what that history 
should be. 

The Ministers of the United States, England, France and 
Russia arrived at Peking, and after some difficulty, bought 
or rented temples under the wall dividing the Tartar City 
from the quarter occupied by the Chinese. This street was 
thereafter known as Legation Street. The ministers were 
ordered to give their credentials, as the letters from their 
governments are called, into the hands of the Emperor. But 
how could they, when the Emperor was a baby ? Nor could 
they give them into the hands of the regents, for they were 
women, and Chinese law forbids any man, except the hus- 
band and members of the family to speak to a woman. 

The Tsze Hsi An did what she could to avoid carrying 
out the treaties. The foreign ministers wanted order re- 
stored first of all, and tried to live on amicable terms with 
the Chinese. But the Chinese ascribed their actions to fear 
of the wrath of the great Middle Kingdom, and thus all the 
results of the war with China were lost. 



20I 



Li Hung Chang had kept 30,000 men of Gordon's army 
in his pay, and when, in 1872, he was promoted as Viceroy 
of Pe-chih-H, he ordered his army northward, and took up 
his quarters at Tientsin, which was now an open port, 
instead of at Pao-Teng-fu (pah-oh teng-foo), the capital of 
the province; for among his other duties, he was to advise 
upon the deahngs with the barbarians. 

The Tsung-li Yamen, or Foreign Office, had been es- 
tabHshed in 1861. At first it may have been, and probably 
was, intended to act as a Department of State, with power 
to carry on China's business with foreign nations. But 
when the Chinese saw that the foreign ministers took no 
advantage of their position, all its power was taken away, 
and it was simply a board, to hear what the barbarians 
might have to say. After its members had made a report, Li 
Hung Chang's advice was asked and generally followed. At 
this time a dispute arose between China and Japan. A Jap- 
anese junk had been wrecked on the coast of Formosa, and 
the government at Tokyo demanded satisfaction. China 
denied that it had any power over the island, whereupon 
the Japanese undertook to punish the islanders, and sent a 
small army to Formosa. China then claimed the island, and 
war seemed certain, but it was averted through the influ- 
ence of the British Minister at Peking. 

In the same year Tung-Chih came of age, and Tsze Hsi 
An withdrew behind the screen. The foreign ministers 
insisted upon carrying out their orders, and, after much 
objection, they were finally admitted before Tung-Chih in 
1873, but only in the Hall of Tribute. They found this out 
after it was too late to insist upon being received in a 
more fitting manner. 



202 



In 1875 Tung-Chill died. Tsze Hsi An was now no 
longer mother of the sovereign, and had not a shadow of a 
claim upon the regency. But she had tasted the sweets of 
power, and was not the woman to give them up without 
a struggle. She at once called a family council of the princes 
friendly to her, and by her advice Prince Chung, the brother 
of the late Emperor Hsien-Feng, consented that his three- 
year-old son, Tsai-tien (tsie-teen) should be proclaimed 
emperor under the title of Kuang Hsu (kwahng hsoo), or 
"Illustrious .Successor." 

Li Hung Chang was notified and moved his Ever-Vic- 
torious Army toward Peking. This had the effect of stop- 
ping all opposition, even when Tsze Hsi An gravely an- 
nounced that her late husband, dead these fourteen years, 
had adopted the three-year-old child by " posthumous act," 
that is, by an act after his death. 

If this posthumous act was recognized,' she was as much 
Tsze Hsi An as she was before, and Li Hung Chang had 
prevented opposition. From that time a strong friendship 
commenced between them. The Viceroy, as he was now 
called, was from this time really Secretary of State, and 
it was ncf easy position. He, alone among all the princes 
and high officers of China, did know something of the power 
of foreign nations, and it was owing to the friendship of 
Tsze LIsi An that he was not beheaded long ago. 

In 1876 there was trouble again with Japan. This time 
it was about Korea. That country had insulted the Jap- 
anese, perhaps trusting to the assistance of China. But 
neither Li Hung Chang nor the Tsze Hsi An had any liking 
for war. A treaty was signed at Tientsin in which China 
declared that it had no power over Korea. There was an- 



20' 



other dispute about the Loo-Choo Islands. It was sub- 
mitted to General U. S. Grant, when he visited China in 
1878. Grant advised that the islands should be divided 
between China and Japan. Both refused to do this, and 
Japan settled the question by taking all the islands. 

In 1883 there was a quarrel with France, and war fol- 
lowed the next year. Although the French were victorious, 
the Chinese fought better than they had ever done before. 




A Street Scene in Korea 

The year before this Li Hung Chang had played a neat 
trick upon Japan. He disliked the Japanese because they 
have adopted many of our customs and manners, and for 
another reason which I shall tell you hereafter. In 1882 he 
was really afraid that the Japanese would take Korea. Ad- 
miral Shufeldt, of the United States Navv. was in Tien- 



204 



tsin at the time, and Li advised him to go to Chemulpo 
(che-mull-poh), and make a treaty. The French and 
Americans had tried to go there before, but failed on ac- 
count of the shallow water near Korea, and the strong tide 
along that coast. Admiral Shufeldt, however, acted upon 
Li's advice and found the Koreans, who had been warned 
by Li Hung Chang, quite willing to do as he wished. The 




The Market Place, Chemulpo 

treaty was signed, and the United States was the first 
western nation with whom Korea made a treaty. Li Hung 
Chang thought that, if Japan tried to capture Korea, the 
United States would take steps to prevent it. 

In 1884 trouble broke out in the capital of Korea, known 
to us by the name of Seoul or Soiil (sowl). It was really 



205 

a quarrel between two prominent families, the Min and the 
Kim. The Min were related to the Queen, and the Kim 
were friends of the Japanese. They all threw the blame 
upon the Tai-won-Kun (tie-won-koon), or Prince Regent, 
the title given to the father of the King. Li Hung Chang- 
heard of it, and sent a warship to Chemulpo. To restore 
order he had the Tai-won-Kun kidnapped on board the war 
vessel, and brought to Tientsin, where he was kept prisoner 
for two years. At the end of that time he was quietly 
taken back to Korea. 

In 1886 Kuang Hsu became of age, and once more the 
Tsze Hsi An retired behind the curtain, but, except in name, 
it was she who governed. Although not related to the Em- 
peror by blood, in the eye of the Chinese she was his 
mother, and he owed to her all the duties imposed by filial 
piety. How often was the poor, weak boy' compelled to 
visit his adopted mother at the E-ho (ay-hoh) Park palace, 
to kow-tow before her ! 

Li Hung Chang's history from this time until his death 
in November 1901, can not be separated from that of the 
Emperor Kuang Hsu. 



KUANG HSU, THE ILLUSTRIOUS SUCCESSOR 

TAKEN from his father and mother when he was only 
three and a half years old, the poor, little boy was 
brought to that immense Purple Forbidden City; a city 
by itself indeed. To worship and to be worshiped, — such 
were his duties and his burdens. The dead and gone em- 
perors of China were now his ancestors, and he must wor- 
ship at their tablets, or their spirits would have no rest. 
He must worship the Tsze Hsi An ; that was a duty im- 
pressed upon the child from his babyhood. But every one 
of the palace officers, and of the five thousand palace servants 
must worship him, for to them he was the Tien-tsz', the 
Son of Heaven. 

Poor little fellow ! Even if he did have a " whipping 
boy," who was to receive all the punishment which the little 
Emperor had deserved, what boy would not rather take his 
own whipping? But Kuang Hsu had no choice. He was 
watched by day and by night. Did he ever have any fun ? It 
is difficult for a foreigner to find out what passes behind 
those high walls enclosing the Purple Forbidden City. The 
Court Records, or the Peking Gazette, of the time when 
Kuang Hsu was still a boy, has some curious notices. One 
day a pony was presented to him. All boys like ponies, and 
I suppose he did. At all events, the Peking Gazette says that 
the pony was quiet and gentle, and, therefore, he had given 

206 



207 

it the name of: "The Pearl that flies Hke a bird." The 
Gazette does not teh how long the pony with such a long 
name lived. 

When Kuang Hsn was sixteen years old, it was time for 
him to marry. The Tsze Hsi An, or Empress-Dowager, as 
she is improperly called, selected his bride for him. This was 
Ye-ho-na-la (yay-hoh-nah-lah), one of her own nieces. 

Ktiang Hsu now ascended the throne and began to use the 
vermilion pencil. It is supposed that a certain degree of 
liberty was allowed him in unimportant matters ; but it is 
certain that he was compelled to consult his imperious 
adoptive mother in every affair of moment. It is very 
probable that the decisions of the council were laid before 
the Empress before they were submitted to him. But Li 
Hung Chang stood between the throne and the outside bar- 
barians, and if Kuang Hsu had any serious troubles, they 
were kept hidden from the world. 

The world, in the first eight years of Kuang Hsu's reign, 
did not take much interest in him or in China. But sud- 
denly, in 1894, a change came. A dispute arose between 
China and Japan in regard to Korea. The King of Korea 
asked the assistance of China to help him subdue a rebellion 
in his country. Japan thereupon claimed that Korea was an 
independent State, and that China had no right to inter- 
fere. Japan then began to send large bodies of soldiers 
to Korea. 

It has been stated that the Tsze Hsi An, who was that 
year to celebrate her sixtieth birthday, wished to add splen- 
dor to it by defeating Japan. It is more probable that Jap- 
an's warlike preparations had attracted Li Hung Chang's 
attention. For several years he had been successful in de- 



208 



fending China, by using one nation's jealousy to keep the 
other in check. He may have thought that Russia or Eng- 
land would not permit Japan to fight. He should have 
known that China had no soldiers beyond what remained 
of his own " Ever-Victorious Army." Whosoever or what- 
soever was the cause of the war, it ended the peaceful ex- 
istence of China. 

Poor Kuang Hsu, on the ist of August, 1894, ordered his 
generals to drive the so-called Japanese pigmies back into 
their lair. Instead of that, the undrilled, half-starved, ill- 
arrhed Chinese coolies, hired for the purpose of cutting off 
Japanese heads, gladly followed their officers when they set 
the example of running away from the enemy. Tsze Hsi 
An did not celebrate her birthday that year. Instead, there 
was fear in the Purple Forbidden City. Yellow jackets and 
peacock feathers, the tokens of rank and power, were given 
and taken away, and still those little pigmies drew nearer 
and nearer to the capital. Poor Kuang Hsu ! If common 
report at Peking at that time be true, he did feel the disgrace 
to his country and to himself, but he did not know what to 
do, nor which way to turn. 

The J^anese gained one success after another; they had 
half destroyed the Chinese navy in a great battle at the 
mouth of the Yahu River, and had captured Port Arthur, 
the strongest fortress in China, with its great stores of war 
material. A combined attack by army and navy was made 
on the forts which protected the harbor of Wei-hai-wei. The 
Chinese admiral finally gave up his shattered fleet, and then 
killed himself. 

Peace proposals were now being made by the Chinese, 
and at length Li Hung Chang was called to Peking and 



209 



received orders to proceed to Japan with full powers to 
conclude a treaty of peace. 

The journey almost cost him his life, for he was shot at 
by a Japanese ruffian and the ball wounded him in the cheek. 
The Mikado, or Emperor, of Japan, ordered all fighting to 
stop, and after much negotiation a treaty of peace was con- 
cluded. 

China was forced to agree to Japan's demands, and Li 
Hung Chang returned to Peking with the Treaty of Shi- 
monoseki that humbled China before the whole world. 

Peace was made. What next ? That was the question. 
If China was to keep her place among the nations, reforms 
must be instituted. ^ Railroads must be built, schools must 
be opened, and what had been done by Japan must be done 
by China. 

In the meantime a new Czar of Russia was to be crowned 
in the old imperial City of Moscow, and Li Hung Chang 
was sent to represent Kuang HsUj and the old man began 
his long journey around the world. 

How could he even describe to his fellow-countrymen what 
he had seen ? The Chinese language itself has no name for 
many of our modern improvements. 

Li Hung Chang, while in the United States, visited many 
places of interest, and bowed before Grant's tomb. Here, at 
least, was something which he could understand. 

He returned to China, and upon his arrival at Peking, 
knowing who was the real ruler, he went in his chair to 
the E-ho Park Palace, to pay his respects to the Tsze Hsi 
An, and came near losing his head for it. The Peking 
Gazette announced the very next day that Li would be 
severely punished for his lack of respect in not visiting the 

STO. OF CHINA — I4 



210 



Emperor first. It took all the influence of the Tsze Hsi An 
and all Li's diplomacy to save his life. He withdrew to 
P''ao-ting-fu (pah-oh ting-fu), the capital of the province, 
and would no more take ofBce. 

Kuang Hsu was in earnest in his desire for reforms. 
China must wake up from her long sleep ; railroads must 
be built; schools must be established. 

But when he ordered his officers to do all this, they kow- 
towed and said : " We have no money ! " Then Russia 
stepped in, and wanted to build a railroad, and China was 
forced to yield. When the order was given that Chinese 
boys and girls must be sent to school to learn what our 
boys and girls are learning, the whole of China stood aghast. 
What was to become of those hundreds of thousands of men 
who had spent their lives in learning by heart the books 
of Confucius and Mencius ? Would they, too, have to go 
to school and learn our a, b, c ? 

Every officer and every one of the literati thought that 
the Emperor was mad. The people thought so, too, espe- 
cially when the railroads upset the Feng Shui of the whole 
country, and disturbed the " luck "' of every family. But 
Kuang tTsu was in earnest, and the Peking Gazette an- 
nounced that he, the Son of Heaven, would go himself to 
open the new railroad between Peking and Tientsin. 

What was the Tsze Hsi An doing all this time ? She saw 
that if Kuang Hsu was premitted to go on, whatever .might 
be the fate of China, her power would be lost. She pre- 
tended to be satisfied with the reforms, and even announced 
in the Gazette that she, too, would visit Tientsin in a rail- 
road carriage. But she consulted secretly with her Manchu 
friends, and bribed the palace officials, and formed a plot 



211 



against the Emperor's life. But one who was loyal to the 
poor Emperor warned him of his danger, and Kuang Hsu 
was on the point of leaving the Purple Forbidden City to 
seek shelter in the British Legation, when he was dragged 
back and taken to the E-ho Park Palace, where he was con- 
fined upon a little island. He would have been poisoned 
if the foreign ministers had not heard of the outrage and 
interfered. They demanded to see the Emperor, and at 
last the physician of the French Legation was admitted. 
The young Emperor looked as if he were just recovering 
from a dose of poison. 

The foreign ministers could do nothing for him, as their 
respective governments did not desire to go to war with 
China, and so Kuang Hsu was kept in confinement and the 
Tsze Hsi An was the real ruler once more. 



CHINA'S LATEST HISTORY 

IN December, 1899, Yano (yah-noh), the Minister of Japan 
at Peking, announced that the Tsze Hsi An had ap- 
pointed him her councilor ; that the Chinese army would be 
drilled by Japanese officers, and that he was going to Tokyo 
to consult with his government. Soon after, the Japanese 
consul at Shanghai left for Tokyo in company with two 
Chinese officers, and there was a rumor at Peking that 
China and Japan were to enter into an alliance. When the 
Russian Minister heard of this he sent a letter to the Chinese 
government, in which he said that Russia would consider 
such an alliance as an unfriendly act on the part of China. 
When the intentions of Japan and China thus became known, 
the two nations gave up all idea of an alliance. 

At theJDeginning of the year 1900 there were several small 
disturbances about Peking. Chinese Christians and for- 
eign missionaries were attacked by men who belonged to 
what is called the Ta-chuan (tali choo-ahn), — Big Fist 
Union, or Boxer Society. The Chinese are very fond of 
forming societies, or unions. The principal idea is mutual 
assistance. For instance, there is a beggar union. When a 
beggar who is a member of this union grows too old to 
beg, he receives from the uhion money enough to live. 
Members of the Big Fist or Boxer Society must have 



213 



an athletic training from their boyhood. They are employed 
as watchmen by the foreign residents and by the wealthy 
Chinese. Sometimes, when such Chinese go traveling, and 
carry large sums of money with them, they hire a member 
of the Ta-chuan Society to go with them, and they feel 
perfectly safe, for they are under the protection of that 





I ^ 



(Copyright, 1901, by J. C. Hemment.) 
Legation Street, Peking 

Society. When the Chinese government wishes to send a 
large amount of bullion, that is, gold or silver, it hires mem- 
bers of the Ta-chuan to guard it on its way. Not a penny 
of it is ever lost. 

At the time that the first disturbance of the Boxers near 
Peking took place it was said that the Tsze Hsi favored the 
movement against the native Christians and foreign mission- 



214 



aries. At all events, in spite of the efforts of the European 
ambassadors, the Chinese imperial troops seemed unable 
to put down the Boxer movement. 

In May 1900 the disturbances caused by this Society 
. became so serious that the foreign ambassadors felt that 
the lives of all Europeans in Peking were in danger. The 
European powers, Japan and the United States, accord- 
ingly sent troops from the coast to guard the embassies. 
Warships were also sent to the mouth of the Pei-ho River. 
As no satisfaction could be obtained from the Chinese gov- 
ernment, the allied forces took and held the Taku forts, and 
after severe fighting captured the city of Tientsin. Mean- 
time the foreigners in Pekin were closely besieged and in 
great danger. Rumors of massacre reached the coast, and 
the allied nations sent large numbers of troops to the rescue 
of their fellow-countrymen in Peking. After hard fighting 
the relief column reached the capital, forced an entrance 
by the Great East Gate, and raised the siege of the Lega- 
tions. Peking was then occupied by the allied forces. The 
Chinese government had fled, no one was certain whither. 
Just as, years ago, Lord Elgin ordered the Summer Palace 
to be burned to show the Chinese that they were de- 
feated, so now it was decided to march troops through 
the sacred precincts of the Forbidden City, to impress upon* 
them the enormity of the crime their government had com- 
mitted. 

The allied powers now discussed the terms to be made 
with China, and negotiations were opened with the govern- 
ment through Prince Ching and Li Hung Chang. It was 
finally decided that the European nations would withdraw 
their troops, if China would agree, among other concessions, 



215 



to punish the chief men responsible for the outrages against 
the foreigners ; destroy the Taku forts, and allow permanent 
Legation guards to be maintained, and the diplomatic quarter 
to be fortified. Without delay, Prince Ching and Li Hung 
Chang were authorized by the Emperor and Empress to 




Approach to the Second Palace in the Forbidden City- 



agree to the demands of the powers. The government issued 
an edict forbidding anti-foreign societies, and declared that 
all local officials would be held responsible for the main- 
tenance of order. 



CONCLUSION 

WHEN we study the history of the world, we generally 
begin with Asia. Some people even think that the 
Garden of Eden was between the Euphrates and the Tigris ; 
others suppose it to have been in the Valley of Cashmere, in 
India. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that in the ruins 
of Babylon and Nineveh we find the foundation stones of 
our civilization, so far as we are able to trace them. If 
we continue studying the history of the world we come to 
the shores of the Mediterranean. We then go to Egypt, 
follow the coast line to Phoenicia, cross to Greece with its 
sunny isles, stop at Rome and visit Carthage. But sud- 
denly a veil is cast over the picture as it has unfolded be- 
fore our mental vision. We see hordes of barbarians over- 
running all Europe, and trampling civilization for a time 
under their feet. 

Years of darkness and misery pass, but the seeds of our 
civilization have not been destroyed. Once more, on the 
mild shores of the Mediterranaen, civilization flourished, and 
Venice, Genoa and Florence became the centers of a new 
life. 

Commerce is one of the great motive powers in civiliza- 
tion. The nation where the world's commerce concentrates 
is the center of the spirit of progress. 

216 



217 



As the veil of barbarism lifts more and more, we see that 
the scene moves from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. 
Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, Germany and Great 
Britain successively struggle for the highest rank among 
the nations. 

Progress has made enormous strides in the last fifty 
years. When Jules Verne wrote his story " Around the 
World in Eighty Days," people thought it an amusing but 
impossible tale. Thirty years ago it took one hundred and 
thirty-two days to go from Holland to Japan. Now one 
can go from New York to Yokohama in seventeen days ;and 
if the time be well chosen, a person can send a telegram 
to Yokohama and receive an answer in three hours. 

In the United States the development has been wonderful. 
In how few years did our people spread from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Coast ! 

As soon as this was accomplished, a movement was begun 
to extend our influence across the Pacific. It is a remarkable 
fact that, while Great Britain and Russia had made several 
attempts to open Japan, it was the United States that finally 
succeeded. 

Asia has finally been caught in the maelstrom of progress. 
China, the immutable empire, which has seen the origin, 
greatness, and decay of so many nations, has opposed our 
civilization for sixty years. What if these four hundred 
millions of hard-working, sober, thrifty, and intelligent 
people should say to the nations of the world : " You have 
made us adopt your ways ; now we will enter the race with 
you." 

No man can foretell what the future of China will be. 
The past, however, indicates that China will not be per- 



2l8 



mitted to continue its policy of isolation, and that the passive 
civilization of Confucius must give way to the active spirit of 
modern times. 

I have been upon the Yang tsz' River, and have seen the 
smokestack of the factory almost side by side with the 
pagoda. I have seen coal and iron mines that have been 
worked for many, many centuries. Those who have ex- 
amined China, with its wonderful natural resources, declare 
that it is the storehouse of the world for ages to come. 

Nowhere will the development of the Middle Flowery 
Kingdom be watched with deeper interest than in the United 
States. 



INDEX. 



Abacus, 104. 

Aigun, treaty signed at, 158. 

Ala shan, mountain range, 10. 

Allies, send troops to Peking, 214; 
capture Taku forts and Tien- 
tsin, 214; occupy Peking, 214; 
discuss terms of peace, 214,215. 

Americans in China, 162, 214. 

Amoy, a treaty port, 18 ; East 
India Company at, 169 ; open 
to British trade, 183. 

Amur Province, 159. 

Amur River valley, 155, 156. 

An-hui province, 17, 22. 

Arabians visit China, 135. 

Argun, Russian steamer, 157. 

Argun River, Russians at, 155. 

Bamboo, uses of, 29. 

Batavia, Dutch settlement, 150. 

Bishop, Mrs., quoted, 20. 

Bo'st, Dutch Admiral, 153. 

Boxer Society. 212, 214. 

Bremer, Sir Gordon, 180. 

Buddhists, 58; temples of, 58, S9- 

Burlingame, Anson, 166. 

Burmah, 9. 

Candida, native Christian, 147. 

Candidius, George, Dutch mis- 
sionary, 151. 

Cangue (Kia). 51. 

Canton, largest city in China, 18; 
trouble about opium at, 177; 
o'pen to British trade, 183. 

Capel. Admiral, 177. 

Cathay, name for China, 7. 

Censorate, 42, 43. 



Chabaroff, Russian explorer, 155. 

Chang Chih Tung, Viceroy, 38. 

Chang-tien-tsz', ruler of genii, 64. 

Che-foo, open port, 16, 195. 

Che-Kiang province, 18, 22. 

Chemulpo, in Korea, 204, 205. 

Chih-li province, 14, 22. 

Chin, name for China, 7. 

Ching, Prince, 214. 

Ching Ching-Kung, Chief, attacks 
Dutch, 151, 152. 

Chingtu, city in Sze-chuen, 21. 

Chin-teh-tsin, potteries at, 94. 

Chopsticks, 75. 

Chu-Kiang (West River), 13. 

Chung, Prince, son of, pro- 
claimed Emperor, 202. 

Chung-How, mandarin, 160. 

Chung Hwa Kwoh (Middle Flow- 
ery Kingdom), 8. 

Chung-King, a treaty port, 21. 

Chu-san, Island of, 180. 

Climate of China described, 10. 

Colquhoun, A. R., quoted, 172. 

Columbus, voyage of, 7. 

Confucius, 45, 49, 50, 55, 120, 121, 
126-133. 

Cotton, cultivated, 28. 

Councils of the government, 41. 

Coxinga, Portuguese name for 
Ching Ching-Kung, 151. 

Gushing, Hon. Caleb. 164. 

Czar sends embassy to China, 155. 

Deluge, story of the, 112-117. 

Dent, British merchant, 178. 

Departments, government, 41, 42. 



219 



220 



Desert of Gobi, ii. 

Dragon, Chinese god, 57, 58. 

Dutch in Ciiina, 150-154. 

Dutch East India Company, 151. 

Dwellings, 81, 82. 

East China Sea, 9. 

East India Company, 151, 169, 
171 ; charter expires, 174. 

Eighteen Provinces (Shih pah 
seng), 8; 9; 14-22; zi- 

Elgin, Lord, appointed peace com- 
missioner, 191 ; orders Summer 
Palace to be burned, 195. 

Elliot, Admiral, 181. 

Elliot, Captain, British Superin- 
tendent of Trade, 177-180. 

Emily, American ship, 163. 

Emperors o'f China, Ming Wong, 
no, in; Yau, 112-115; Shun, 
115-117; Fuh-hi, 118; Hwang- 
ti, 118; Shin-nung, 118; Chi 
hwang-ti, 119; Wu-yih, 119; 
Chang, 121 ; Li Chi-min, 121 ; 
Ming-ti, 121 ; Chang tsung, 122 ; 
Kau-tsung, 122 ; Li-tsung, 122 ; 
Tai-tsung, 122 ; Yung-loh, 123 ; 
Kang hi, 124, 147; Kia-King, 
124; Kien-lung, 124, 149; Tau 
Kwang, 124 ; Chang-ti, 141 ; 
Yung-ching, 148 ; Hsien-Feng, 
194, 199; Tung-Chih, 199, 201, 
202; Kuang Hsu, 202, 205-211. 

Empress, American ship, 163. 

England seeks market in China, 
168; wars with China, 164, 165; 
175-183. J91-195; sends troops 
to Peking, 214. 

"Ever- Victorious Army" crushes 
Tae-Ping rebels, 189. 

Examinations, 44-51. 

Explorers, European, 141 -149. 

Fah-lan-ki, foreigners, 141. 

Fairy, opium brig, 177. 

Fang yin-kau, holiday, 65. 

" Feast of the Dragon Boats," 
109, no. 

Feng Shui, spirit, 52, 65. 

Feng Shui sin-sang, 66-68. 

"Festival of the Moon," no. 

Fishing cormorant, 32. 

Flint, merchant employed by East 
India Company, 171. 



Flowery Flag People, Chinese 
name for Americans, 162. 

Foochow, a treaty port, 18, 183. 

Formosa, Dutch settle in, 150; 
trouble between China and 
Japan concerning, 201. 

France, war with China, 165, 191- 
195, 203; 214. 

Friar Odoric, visits China, 139. 

Fuh, name for Buddha, 59. 

Fuh-Kien province, 18, 22. 

Funeral customs, 78, 79, 80. 

Caspar, Portuguese captive, 145. 

Germany, demands Kiao - Chao, 
161 ; sends troops to Peking, 214. 

Golofkin, Russian captain, 156. 

Gordon ("Chinese Gordon") com- 
mander of "Ever - Victorious 
Army," 189; trouble with Li 
Hung Chang, 198. 

Gougli, Sir Hugh, 182. 

Government of China, 34-43. 

Goyer, Dutch merchant, 151. 

Grand Canal, 123. 

Grant, Gen. U. S., in China, 203. 

Great Wall (Wan-li Chang), 119. 

Green, Captain, 163. 

Gulf of Pe-chih-li, 9. 

Gulf of Tong-King, 9. 

Hall of Tribute, 201. 

Hambroeck, Anthony, 152, 153. 

Han dynasty, founded, 121. 

Han River, 21. 

Hang-chow, in Che-Kiang prov- 
ince, 18; trading city, 135. 

Han-jin, name for Chinese, 8. 

Han-KOw, city in Hu-peh, 21,22. 

Han-lin (" Member of the Acad- 
emy"), 48. 

Han-tsz', name for Chinese, 8. 

Han-yang, city in Hu-peh, 21, 22. 

Hernandez Pinto, 142-145. 

Hien - yang, capital during the 
Tsin dynasty, 119. 

Himalaya Mountains, 10. 

Hing-Pu, 42. 

Hoang-ho (Yellow River), 12. 

Ho-nan province, 16, 22. 

Hongkong, ceded to the British, 
183. 

Hu-nan province, 22. 

Hung, Chinese family name, 184. 



221 



Huns, driven back by Chinese, 
119, 120. 

Hu-peh province, 21, 22. 

Hu-Pu, 42. 

Hwa, district of Kwang-tung, 184. 

Hwa-Ki (Flowery Flag People), 
Americans called, 162. 

Hwang - Shang (" August Lofty 
One ") name of the Emperor, 34. 

Ignatieff, General, 159. 

Immigration, Chinese, 167. 

Irkutsk, Russian settlement, 157. 

Jacatra, fort in Java, 150. 

Japan, war with China, 160, 207- 
209; trouble in Formosa, 201; 
trouble about Korea, 202, 207 ; 
dispute about Loo-Choo Islands, 
203 ; defeats China in naval bat- 
tle. 208 : captures Port Arthur, 
208; destroys Chinese fleet at 
Wei-hai-wei, 208; attempts to 
form alliance with China, 212; 
sends troops to Peking. 214. 

Java, Dutch settle in, 150. 

Jesuits, first enter China, 123 ; or- 
dered to leave Peking, 146-148. 

Jews, colony of, in China, 139, 140. 

Jin, name for China, 7. 

Ju-Kiau. system of teaching, 55. 

Kai-fung, capital of Ho-nan prov- 
ince, 17. 

Kamtchatka, 156. 

Kan-suh province, 20, 22. 

Ken Yuen, story of, no. 

Keyzer, Dutch merchant, 151. 

Kiang, Chinese name for river, 11. 

Kiang-si province, 18, 22. 

Kiang-su province, 17, 22. 

Kiao-chao, leased to Germany, 161. 

Kim, Korean family, 205. 

King-Chau or Peking Gazette, 36 
41, 206, 207. 

Kin sha Kiang. 12. 

Kin Tien Kien, 147. 

Ki-shen, governor, 181. 

Ki Tai, name for Chinese, 7. 

Kite-flying, favorite sport, 105,106. 

Kiun-Ki Chu, General Council, 41. 

Ki-Ying, mandarin, 182. 

Koh Kii, 102, 103. 

Koko-Nor, 9. 

Korea, trouble with Japanese, 202 ; 



treaty with United States, 204; 
internal troubles, 204, 205 ;cause 
of contention between China 
and Japan, 207. 

Kuang Hsu (see under Emperor). 

Kublai Khan, 122, 123. 

Kuen-lun, mountain range, 10. 

Kung, father of Confucius, 126. 

Kung, Prince, 194. 

Kung-Pu, Board of Works, 42. 

Kwang-si province, 19. 22. 

Kwang-tung province, 18, 22. 

Kwei-chow province, 19, 22. 

Kyu-jin ("Promoted Men"), 48. 

Lady Hughes, British ship, 173. 

Lake Balkash, 159. 

Language, Chinese, 69. 70. 99, 100. 

Lao Lai-tsz', story of, loi. 

Lao-tsz', religious teacher, 55. 

Legation street, 200, 213. 

Le-Pu, Department of Religion,42. 

Liao-tung peninsula, 160. 

Li Fan Yuen, Colonial Office, 42. 

Li Hung Chang, 27 > 2>^\ at coro- 
nation of Czar, 160, 209; makes 
secret treaty with Russia, 160; 
helps to suppress Tae-Ping Re- 
bellion, 184, 189, 197 ; life of, 
197-205 ; Viceroy of Pe-chih-li, 
201 ; adviser in foreign affairs, 
201 ; friendship with Tsze Hsi 
An, 202 ; negotiates treaty with 
Japan, 208, 209 ; wounded by a 
Japanese fanatic, 209; visits the 
United States, 209; arranges 
terms of peace with the allies, 
214; death of, 205. 

Lin-tin. opium sold at, 177. 

Lin Tseh-su, sent to Canton to 
stop opium trade, 178; forces 
delivery of opium, 179. 

Lion, British ship, 174. 

Li-Pu, Civil Service, 42. 

Literati, men of letters, 39, 40, 49. 

Liu Pang, 120, 121. 

Lockhart, English missionary, 190, 

Loh-yang, city, 121. 

Loo-Cho'o Islands, 203. 

Lii, Viceroy, negotiates with Lord 
Napier, 175. 

"Luck." 65, 66. 

Lu-tsu, Chinese god, 55-57. 



222 



Macao, Dutch and Portuguese at, 
141, 145,150 ; English at,i69, 181. 

Manchu, order adoption of queue, 
74; dynasty, 124. 

Manchuria, Russia demands, 159. 

Mandeville, Sir John, 137-139. 

Marco Polo, quoted, 18, 135-137. 

Marriage customs, 76, 'jj. 

Mencius (Meng tsz') 45, 49, 50, 
"JT, 78; writings burned, 120. 

Men shin, door spirits, 109. 

Middle Flowery Kingdom, 8. 

Mi-leh-fuh, Chinese god, 58. 

Min, Korean family, 205. 

Min River, 21. 

Ming ("Bright") dynasty, 123. 

Minnesota, American vessel, 165. 

Mohammedans, rebel against Chi- 
nese government, 159. 

Mongolia, 9. 

Mo'ngols in China, 122, 123. 

Morrison, American ship, 182. 

Morrison, Dr., 164. 

Mountain ranges, 10. 

Muravieff, Count Nicholas, ex- 
plores Amur River, 156; sends 
vessels to Sea of Okhotsk, 156; 
sends expedition to Aigun, 157; 
obtains Chinese concession, 158. 

Nanking, famous for cotton cloth, 
28; invested by British, 182; 
taken by Tae-Ping rebels, 188. 

Nan-ling mountain range, 184. 

Nanning, large trading to'wn, 19. 

Nan shan or Kuen-lun range, 10. 

Napier, Lordj, appointed Chief Su- 
perintendent of Trade, 174-175 ; 
dies at Macao, 175. 

Nevilskoi, Captain, 156. 

New-Chwang, treaty port, 195. 

New Year, celebration of, 107-109. 

Nikolayfsk, Russian to'wn, 156. 

Ningpo, open to British trade, 183. 

Nui Koh, Council, 41. 

Officers, how appointed, 44-51. 

Opium, trade in, 176; use forbid- 
den by Emperor, 176, I77;smug- 
gling of, 177-179; destroyed by 
Chinese, 179. 

Opium War, 164, 175-183. 

Orloff, Lieutenant, 156. 

Pacific Coast, Chinese at, 167. 



Pagodas, attached to temples, 59. 

Pai Shan, religious holiday, 53. 

Pang-hu(Piscadores Islands), 150. 

Paper, made from the bamboo, 29. 

Parkes, Harry, appointed consul 
at Canton, 190; makes treaty 
with Siam, 191 ; Lord Elgin's 
interpreter, 193 ; captured by 
Chinese, 193 ; knighted, 196 ; 
minister to Japan, 196; buried 
in Westminster Abbey, 196. 

Pei-ho (North River), 10, 13; 
Chinese gain victory at, 159; 
English fleet anchored at, 180; 
warships of the allies at mouth 
of, 192, 214. 

Peking, capital of Chinese Em- 
pire, 13, 14; foreign troops 
move on, 192; Summer Palace 
burned, 195. 

Peter the Great, 156. 

Ping-Pu, Department of War, 42. 

Piscadores Channel, 9 ; Islands, 150. 

Pi shan, volcano, 10. 

Port Arthur, leased by Russia, 16, 
161 ; captured by Japan, 208. 

Port Hamilton, 158. 

Ports opened to British trade, 183. 

Portuguese, first enter China, 123 ; 
141-145; at Macao, 145; fight 
with IDutch, 150; influence Chi- 
nese against English, 169. 

Pottinger, Sir Henry, 182. 

Po-yang Lake, 94. 

Prejevalsky, Col. N., quoted, 195. 

Printing, 29, 30. 

Province of Eastern Siberia, 159. 

Province of Manchuria, 159. 

Purple Forbidden City, name giv- 
en to Peking, 34; allies march 
through, 214. 

Putiatin, Russian admiral, sent on 
mission to China and Japan, 158; 
establishes station at Port Ham- 
ilton, 158; secures treaty of 
Tien-tsin, 159. 

Raleigh, British sloop-of-war, 177. 

Reed, Hon. William B., 165, 166. 

Reforms in China, 210. 

Religion, 52-68. 

Ricci, Matteo, Catholic missicfnary, 
146; translated Euclid, 146. 



223 



Rice, cultivation of, 24. 

Roberts, Rev. I. J., 188. 

Romans, intercourse of, with Chi- 
nese, 121. 

Russians in China, 155-161. 

Saghalien, Russians in, 156. 

Sailors, foreign, 172, 173. 

Schaal, missionary, 146, 147. 

Schedel, Commissioner of the 
Dutch East India Company, 151. 

Senhouse, Sn- Fleming, 182. 

Seng-ko-ling-sing, commander of 
Chinese army, 193 ; defeated by 
English and French, 194. 

Seoul, capital of Korea, 204. 

Sepoys, Indian troops, 182. 

Seres, name given by the Greeks 
to' the Chinese, 134. 

Seu-ki-yu, Chinese writer on 
Geo'rge Washington, 164, 165. 

Seward, William H., agrees upon 
new treaty with China, 167. 

Seymour, Sir Michael, takes forts 
near Canton, 191. 

Shang, family name, 118. 

Shanghai, important city, 17. 

Shan-si province, 14, 22. 

Shan-tung province, 15, 22; Ger- 
mans in, 16, 160. 

Sheen, English sailor, 174. 

Shen Quel Fen, prime minister,44. 

Shen-si province, 19, 22. 

Shih pah seng, Eighteen Prov- 
inces, 8, 9, 14-22. 

Shimonoseki, Treaty of, 209. 

Shi-shih, holiday, 65. 

Shufeldt, Admiral, at Tientsin, 
203 ; goes to Chemulpo; 204 ; 
makes treaty with Korea on be- 
half of United States, 204. 

Shun-chi, first emperor of the 
Manchu dynasty, 124. 

Sian-Fu, capital of Shen-si prov- 
ince, and ancient capital of the 
empire, 20; inscription in tem- 
ple at, 135. 

Sien-gan, ancient capital of the 
empire, 121. 

Sien-jin (genii), belief in, 58. 

Silk, 28, 29. 

Silkworms, care of, 29; 134. 

Sin, name for China, 7. 



Sinim, name for China, 7. 

Sin-Kiang, 9. 

Siu, native Christian, 147. 

Siueh ling (Snow Mountains), 10. 

Siu-tsai, first degree, 46. 

Siu-tshuen, leader of the Tae- 
Ping Rebellion, 184-189. 

Skidmore, Eliza R., quoted, 83-85. 

Solitary Man, name given to the 
Emperor, 34. 

Soochow, city in Kiang-su, 17. 

South China Sea, 9. 

Spanish explorers, 145. 

Stepanoff, 155. 

Sungari River, 158. 

Swanpan (abacus), 104. 

Swatow, o'pened to foreigners, 195. 

Sze-chuen province, 20, 22. 

Ta-chuan (Big Fist Union,Boxer 
So'ciety), 212. 

Tae-Ping Rebellion, 184-189. 

Tahu Lake, 17. 

Tai-won-kun, Korean Prince, 205. 

Tai yuen Fu, city of Shan-si, 15. 

Ta King (Great River), 11. 

Taku Forts, at mouth of Pei-ho, 
13 ;taken by British and French, 
166, 192; allies take, 214. 

Tang dynasty, 20, 121. 

Tang- j in, name for Chinese, 8. 

Tan-hiang Shan, Chinese name 
for the Sandwich Islands, 163. 

Tao, subdivisioti of a province,38. 

Taoism, Religion of Truth, 55, 58. 

Tao-Kiau, system of teaching, 55. 

Ta teh-lo, game with a top, 107. 

Ta-Tsin, Palestine, 135. 

Tat-sin Kwoh, Roman Empire,i34. 

Tau chiau, game with a ball, 107. 

Tea, cultivation and preparation 
of. 25-28; various kinds of, 28. 

Terranova, case of, 163, 164. 

"The Open Door," 168. 

Thibet, part of Chinese Empire,9. 

Tien Chu Kiau, 148. 

Tien-ming, Manchu prince, 123. 

Tien shan Mountains, 10. 

Tientsin, city at head of Grand 
Canal, 13 ; in province of Chih- 
li, 14; taken by English and 
French, 192 ; opened to foreign- 
ers, 195 ; captured by allies, 214. 



224 



Tien-tsung, Manchu prince, at- 
tacks the Ming, 123, 124. 

Tien tsz' (Son of Heaven), 34. 

Ti Ping, son of Emperor, 122. 

Times correspondent captured by- 
Chinese, 193. 

Titsingh, Isaac, 154. 

Tong-King, 9. 

Treaties of China with Russia, 
158, 159, 160; with United 
States, 164, 166, 167 ; with Eng- 
land and France, 166, 167, 183 ; 
with Prussia, 167 ; with Japan, 
209; of Peking, 159; of Tien- 
tsin, 159; of St. Petersburg, 
160; of Shimonoseki, 209. 

Tsan, word meaning silk, 8. 

Tseng, Marquis, 160. 

Tsin, name of a Chinese family,7. 

Tsin dynasty, 119. 

Tsinsz, scholar's third degree, 48. 

Tsung-li Yamen, 42, 201. 

Tsung-tuh (Viceroy), 38, 39. 

Tsze Hsi An, mother of Emperor 
Tung-Chih, 199 ; has son of 
Prince Chung proclaimed Em- 
peror, 202 ; forms plot against 
the Emperor's life, 211; real 
ruler of China, 211; favors 
Boxer movement, 213. 

Tu-chah Yuen, Censorate, 42, 43. 

Turkestan, 159. 

"Turning the Dragon," 107. 

Twan-ming Kwei, evil spirit, 78. 

United States, early trade with 
China, 163; treaties with China, 
164, 166, 167 ; sends troops to 
protect embassy in Peking, 214. 

Ussuri River, 158. 

Van Braam, Dutch consul, 154. 

Van Hoorn, Dutch merchant, 154. 

Vermilion pencil, 207. 

Viceroy, duties of, 38, 39. 



Wang - hia, treaty with United 
States signed at, 164. 

Wang Liang, 103, 104. 

War, with England, 164, 175-183; 
with England and France, 165, 
191-195; with France, 203 ; with 
Japan, 207-209. 

Ward, an American, fights the 
Tae-Ping rebels, 188. 

Weddell, Captain, sent to China 
to trade, 169; involved in fight 
with the Chinese, 169, 170. 

Wei-hai-wei, naval battle of, be- 
tween China and Japan, 16, 208 ; 
leased to Great Britain, 16. 

Wei-to Poo-sah, Chinese go'd, 59. 

Wen Hsiang, prime minister, 44. 

" Whipping boy," 206. 

White Cloud Mountains, 184. 

Williams, S. Wells, quoted, 172. 

Wilson, Gen. J. H., quoted, 12,133. 

Woo Chow, trading town, 19. 

Wu-chang, city in Hu-peh, 21. 

Wu Tsih-tien, Empress, extends 
limits of empire, 122. 

Yahu River, 208. 

Yang tsz', Yang tsze Kiang, prin- 
cipal river of China, 11; differ- 
ent names for, 11, 12. 

Yano, Japanese minister, 212. 

Yau-Kwei (genii), belief in,63-6s. 

Yeh-ho, Emperor flees to, 199. 

Ye-ho-na-la, bride of Emperor 
Kuang Hsu, 207. 

Yellow Sea, 9. 

Yin-chow, birthplace of Confu- 
cius, 126. 

Yu, son of the hero Kwan,ii3-ii7. 

Yuen dynasty, 122. 

Yun ling (Cloud Mcmntains), 10. 

Yun-nan province, 12, 19, 22. 

Zeelandia, Dutch fort in Formo- 
sa, 150-152. 



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APR. 26 1902 



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